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"Why's your forehead all red?"

So you're the Only Sane Man, and the lunatics around you are once again doing something to make you question your faith in humanity. *sigh* It may not solve anything, but raising your hand to your forehead will have the dual benefit of temporarily obscuring your vision of the idiocy as well as cradling the oncoming headache. Variations occur, from pinching the bridge of one's nose to slapping one's forehead (basically a Dope Slap to oneself for the "idiocy" of putting up with this mess). One may also follow up the slap with sliding the palm of the hand down one's face, possibly with a look of exasperation. If they're wearing a hat, expect them to pull the brim of the hat over their eyes in disgust. If they're wearing a cloak or a hoodie, then they're pulling the cowl before their face.

Sometimes, there is a distinction between the forehead facepalm (for irritating moments) and the full-face version (humiliation). There's also the Double Face Palm, which is grasping one's head with both palms, as Picard does in "The Offspring"; this one is far more commonly associated with embarrassment. Some people even have gone meta, inserting "*picture of French Enterprise captain*" in their forum posts.

Of course, it's also prevalent in Real Life. It's universal; a wide range of cultures, and even animals capable of reaching their faces with their arms/forelegs, seem to have some variety of this.

It may be accompanied by the line "That's the Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard!" It may also be combined with I Need a Freaking Drink. Applying a Dope Slap is often a form of ready relief for the headaches that cause a Face Palm.

A Sister Trope to Head Desk (in particularly extreme cases, these actions can also be combined to perform a *facepalmheaddesk* maneuver), Face Fault, Disapproving Look (also known as the "Implied Facepalm").

Compare Surrounded by Idiots, Only Sane Man, The Take.

See also Aside Glance, Stunned Silence.

Not directly related to Facepalm Of Doom, in which one attacks by placing one's palm on someone else's face.

Now in Webster's Dictionary here!


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • GEICO:
    • The Gecko, when the company briefly considers using a campy cartoon version of him.
      Gecko: So you've turned me into a cartoon. Lovely.
    • Also, with the Gecko, Rocky and Bullwinkle. Rocky is the one who does the facepalm first. The Gecko just catches on to it.
      Rocky: Aww, come on, Bullwinkle. They're named after—
      Bullwinkle: First president George Rockington!
      [Rocky looks at Gecko]
      Gecko: That doesn't even make any sense, Mr. ...uh... Winkle.
    • There's also a print ad that talks about saving money with GEICO being no laughing matter. The ad depicts an iguana stating "I-guana save you money" and the Gecko standing next to him, facepalming.
  • Jack in the Box. Jack and others facepalm themselves and/or massage their heads in various commercials.
  • The Discover Card Peggy commercial "Transfer" ends with the caller standing bent over a planter, her face buried in her hands in frustration.
  • V-8 vegetable juice used a campaign for quite a while that involved people dealing themselves the forehead slap version when they realized "Duh, I could have had a V-8!" The campaign was later revived with other people delivering a forehead variant of the Dope Slap to the person who didn't eat their vegetables and the tagline changed to You could have had a V-8!.

    Animation 
  • Lamput: In "Opera", the docs both do a face palm when Fat Doc spills his chloroform all over the opera's audience, sending them to sleep. Slim Doc has a tissue in his hand when he face palms, which wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that the tissue had some of the liquid on it.
  • Mechamato:
    • Deep puts his palm on his face in disbelief upon realising that it was Amato entering the class and not their teacher Mr. Jamie coming in early.
    • Pian slaps his forehead in disappointment at Deep overdramatising them being hunted by Janitoor off of something he learned from movies.
      Pian: (facepalms) This kid needs some help!
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Mighty Little Defenders episode 2, General Wolf does one when one of the wolves tries to shoot a cannonball at the barrier protecting Goat Village.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Black Butler: Ciel in season 2 episode 3, when Sebastian has a moment of adoration over stray kitties and ignores the task at hand to do so.
  • Case Closed: Heiji does one at the end of Chapter 1118 when he realizes he forgot to confess his feelings to Kazuha despite Ran setting them up in the perfect romantic environment for him to do so without any interruptions.
  • This is Kanade's reaction at the end of Chapter 12/Episode 4A of Castle Town Dandelion, after Akane accidentally flashes her schoolmates.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun:
    • Early on, Shirai Kuroko, a young girl law-enforcer, crouches and buries her face in her hands, appalled at the sight of her good acquaintance (later properly introduced as the series' lead) high-kicking a vending machine to make it cough up a free canned drink right in front of her. No, not because of all the law things and how the two were discussing those right up to that moment. It's just that the resulting upskirt shot provokes a complaint from Kuroko how unrefined, unladylike the other girl's taste in underwear is.
    • Kuroko does the headdesk variation, when the usually-straightforward, no-nonsense titular character (who is also her crush) lures the gangmembers with innocent charm. The charm works though. Kuroko hits her head against hard objects hard enough to shake them, and she does it often enough to become a Running Gag. It's a wonder she doesn't suffer from any injuries.
  • Code Geass: Lelouch has one when he realizes that to keep Shirley from knowing about the secret underground base when she came to the library, his maid Sayoko, who was disguising as him at the time, kissed her. Also when she set him up on 108 dates.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • In the Cell Games, Mr. Satan opts to fight Cell first and starts showboating in front of him. Then he decides to show off by breaking 14 of the 15 tiles he prepared with a karate chop to intimidate Cell. Krillin faceplams at the sheer idiocy of the man.
    • In the Buu Saga, Gotenks's antics were enough to make Piccolo facepalm.
    • Goku also does one after Vegeta breaks the punching machine at the 24th Budokai, which the rest of the group had been taking care to hit very lightly so as not to damage it.
    • In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super, Whis's response to Goku getting shot in the back because he dropped his guard is a facepalm, because this is exactly what he warned Goku about earlier in the story.
  • Durarara!!: This is Tom Tanaka's default reaction when someone (usually the person he's getting to pay their debt) pisses Shizuo off.
  • Fruits Basket: Yuki does it after Hatsuharu changes back from black Haru and asks why he's so exhausted.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, several characters have been shown or described to have done this in reaction to Sōsuke's actions or outlandish conclusions. Most commonly done by Mao, Kurz, and Kaname.
  • In season 2 episode 6 of Girls Bravo, Koyomi does this upon realization that Fukuyama's about to have an Unsettling Gender-Reveal dropped on him and he doesn't even know.
  • In Haganai, Kodaka does one in episode 3 at the pool, after he defuses a confrontation between 3 guys and Sena. She then stops them from leaving, only to continue insulting them, and forcing Kodaka to save her yet again by utilizing his Face of a Thug to scare the three guys away. He later berates her for acting that way.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • Kyon does this relatively often. It's like the anime-version of Picard. Ironically, while Haruhi causes the majority of these, the particular instance in the hyperlink—along with its non-captioned original—is a mirrored shot of Kyon facepalming at himself for being asleep while Mikuru was changing in the same room.
    • In The Movie, Itsuki does this in the background after a bit of Ship Tease between Kyon and Haruhi (in the hospital scene near the end of the movie). Doesn't happen often.
  • Germany of Hetalia: Axis Powers has done this on more than one occasion, usually because of something Italy has done.
  • Honey Hunt:
    • In chapter 2, this is Mizorogi's drivers response when Mizorogi tells Yura that the reason he wants to scout her is because she "smells like honey".
    • In chapter 21, Mozorogi does this again in exasperation for having acted a bit immature to Yura.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Stardust Crusaders: After Telence T. D'Arby is beaten at his own game by Jotaro, he fearfully asks Jotaro if he's going to unleash Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs onto him, with Joseph facepalming as it is quite an obvious answer.
    • Stone Ocean: When in the midst of a Potty Emergency, Jolyne tries to explain the situation to Weather Report, who tells her that it's being caused by the affected gravity of the room they're in, making Jolyne facepalm over the ridiculousness of that detail.
  • Kamisama Kiss: Tomoe, Nanami's Beleaguered Assistant, will usually end up doing this at least once an episode, mainly because Nanami tends to act first and think much later.
  • Otani of Lovely★Complex does this in episode 24 after seeing Koizumi's Epic Fail at being a model.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's: Normally soft-spoken Yuuno found himself doing this in the last chapter supplementary comics when he learned that the small task Signum needed him for was in setting up a Training Barrier for her Lighthearted Rematch with Fate. Again.
  • My Monster Secret contains a lot of these from various characters:
    • Asahi, being the Only Sane Man, often does this in response to the antics of the rest of the cast.
    • This is Rin's reaction when she realizes she inadvertently revealed a bunch of classified information about the future.
  • Naruto:
    • During Sakura's infamous fake love confession to Naruto in Chapter 469, you get reaction shots from the other ninja. Every single person present is sporting a Disapproving Look. Except for Rock Lee, who is facepalming (although he eventually sports that same look as Sakura continues to blatantly lie).
    • Also occurs when Naruto states he doesn't want to turn into a frog here during his Sage Mode training.
  • Several characters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi do this, especially Chisame and Asuna, whenever she has to put up with Ayaka.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: "Those damn kids are embarassing us again." Those damned kids being Shinji and Asuka displaying their Belligerent Sexual Tension publicly.
  • One Piece:
    • When Luffy accepts to escort Vivi to Alabasta in spite of the crew being on Baroque Works' deathlist, Nami facepalms in exasperation.
    • The G-5 Marines keep on badmouthing the Straw Hats because if they don't, they will start admiring them. They admit this as they begin to break down in tears while Tashigi laughs and Smoker face-palms.
  • Overlord (2012): With much fanfare, Captain Nigun of the Sunlight Scripture summons a massive angel, Dominion Authority, against Ainz Ooal Gown. To put it mildly, Ainz facepalming and saying "This is stupid" was not the reaction he expected.
  • Sharon of PandoraHearts does this in the second omake when Gil is supposed to be making a soulful declaration to Alice to prepare her for womanhood but he just does it to Oz instead.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has Yosuke doing one in response to Yu's drunken shenanigans in episode 15.
  • Ranma ½: Akane does this in episode 85 when Ranma loses at Strip Poker.
  • A non-comedic version of this happens when The Staff of The British Library do this in the Read or Die OVA in response to losing an entire squadron of troops due to a transport chopper crash while trying to kill the I-Jinn.
  • In Reborn! (2004), Gokudera when he found himself yet again, doing the "VONGOLA! FIGHT!" circle. Also, Squalo does this when Yamamoto is 'fooling around' with his puppy.
  • Sailor Moon Crystal Act 3 features a scene where our heroine is fighting Jadeite while Rei (who hasn't awakened as Sailor Mars yet) is watching. Rei has previously seen Sailor Moon out of costume, and instantly recognizes her:
    Rei: Are you... Usagi?
    Moon: No, I'm not! I'm not Usagi!
    (Luna, being an advisor in cat form, facepaws)
  • Sarutobi Sasuke shows that even famous mythological ninjas (or at least their exaggerated Sengoku Basara incarnations) find this to be the only proper response to their general's stupidity.
  • In chapter 5 of Sensual Phrase one of Sakuya's fellow band mates reacts this way when he states that he wants to use Aine in a music video. In chapter 7, another one of Sakuya's fellow band mates has this reaction at Sakuya's less than subtle remark of taking Aine to his room when she passed out from drinking too much.
  • Lawrence does this quite frequently in Spice and Wolf for any given reason although usually in response to Holo. Holo herself has a half a minute long face palm in the first OVA in response to Lawrence's description of how sheep are used for torture.
  • In Tiger & Bunny, this is Barnaby's reaction to Kotetsu's massively botched attempt at performing the simple act of picking up a dropped pen...accidentally kicking it into the path of an oncoming car in episode 5.

    Arts 
  • Across the street from the Oklahoma City National Memorial is a statue of Jesus Christ performing this gesture. The statue, "And Jesus Wept", depicts him averting his gaze and crying at the loss of life in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing that killed 168 people in 1995, in addition to severely damaging St. Joseph's Catholic Church, which used to be located where the statue now stands (the congregation of the church financed the statue's construction).
  • Plate 10 of William Hogarth's Industry and Idleness series of prints shows industrious 'prentice Francis Goodchild, now Alderman of London, doing this as his idle counterpart Tom Idle is brought before him on charges of highway robbery and murder.

    Comic Books 
  • Master Yoda on the cover of Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace.
  • Supergirl:
    • In Krypton No More Linda does this when Clark reveals that he figured out her "Krypton never existed" story (which she had been coaxed into feed him. Long story) was a lie.
    • In Superman #713, Superman tells Supergirl and Superboy that he has been wondering whether there must be a Superman... and he realized the answer is "No". And then he takes off his costume. Supergirl finds the situation so stupid that she facepalms hard.
    • In Superman/Batman #62 Supergirl's enthusiastic self guided tour of the Batcave while Tim is in the middle of a sentence causes him to irritably drop his face into a hand. Perhaps she's giving him flashbacks to trying to corral Impulse:
      Tim: In the meantime feel free to give yourself a tour of the cave.
      Kara: Okay.
      Tim: Just dont touch—
      *Kara zips off and returns at Super Speed*
      Tim: -anything.
      Kara: That was fun! What's the giant penny for?
  • Taskmaster has done this towards Deadpool, such as when Wade pays him via ATM.
  • Ultimate Marvel
    • The Ultimates: Nick Fury could not believe it when Captain America manipulated Hulk by telling him that the aliens called him a "sissy boy"
    • Ultimate X-Men: Ross can not believe that Wraith risked the secrecy of Weapon X by kidnapping the most famous mutants, the X-Men, and killed Charles Xavier, who was in good terms with the president.
  • In the Warrior Cats graphic novel Winds of Change, Mudclaw face-paws after seeing Onewhisker fall off a tree stump in front of the entire Gathering.
  • The psychiatrist in Watchmen facepalms after a session with Rorschach.
  • An issue of SWORD, an X-Men spin-off, features a group of giant rock aliens seeking to avenge the deaths of four noble creatures whom humans had decapitated and put on display. At Mount Rushmore. Once they learn the nature of the error, this trope occurs.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes:
    • At the end of a Horrible Camping Trip where it rained all week, Calvin's dad has just packed everything up when the rain stops. Cue wap.
    • Calvin does it himself in another strip. After hurting Susie's feelings by calling her names, he makes a hesitant attempt at apology. Irritated and not understanding his stammering, Susie snaps at him and stalks off. Calvin shouts "I'm trying to apologize, you dumb noodleloaf!" Realizing he just called her a name while trying to apologize for calling her names, he facepalms.
  • Garfield:
    • Garfield apparently does this a lot. This strip from Square Root of Minus Garfield demonstrates.
    • There's a strip where Garfield is facepalming for no reason. Jon asks him what he's doing, and Garfield replies, "Practicing being exasperated." Jon notices he's not wearing pants, and Garfield puts his practice to good use.
  • Pearls Before Swine often has characters doing this, and the strip's creator Stephan Pastis does this on the covers of a couple reprint treasuries.

    Fan Works 
  • Maybe the Last Archie Story: Done by Reggie Mantle when, on top of finding out that his ex-schoolmate Sabrina is a witch right after she has been kidnapped, he finds himself talking to a cat.
    Reggie shook his head. "I don't know what it means, either. Not a good enough detective, I suppose." Then he leaned his head against the wall and covered his eyes with one hand.
    Salem looked at Reggie, cocking his head. "What's wrong, kid? Need an Excedrin?"
    From behind his hand, Reggie said, "I'm talking to a cat. I'm having a conversation with a cat. This cannot be real. I'm still dreaming, right?"
  • Hiro does this twice in one night in Different Course of Events, as Baymax was doing an usually good job of saying just the wrong thing to Tadashi.
    Baymax: The encounter with the masked man only increased Hiro's levels of stress, especially when we were under attack and as we escaped by jumping out of a window.
    Hiro slammed his hand against his forehead for a second time that night.
  • The Snow Has Stopped The Rain. Instances include:
    • Ichigo when his friends had decided to "rescue" him and an arrested Rukia, when he had been in the middle of trying to get her out using legal channels.
    • Shirayuki (on herself unusually) when she realizes the ease of which she and Ichigo had been communicating via a Psychic Link should have been impossible and the implications of it are huge.
    • Uryu barely resists this when he realizes Ganju had slipped away from the group when they're in hostile territory. He gives up and does it anyway when Ganju shows up screaming and being pursued by a large number of armed Shinigami.
  • The Bolt Chronicles:
    • Penny hides her face in her hand with mortification on a few occasions.
      • With embarrassment in reaction to her mom's Big Eater binge in "The Baseball Game."
      • With embarrassment when Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino are caught by security snitching a pair of skis, tearing up a freshly groomed mountain trail, throwing snowballs, and committing other transgressions in "The Ski Trip."
      • With irritation upon discovering how badly fouled up her computer has become in "The Autobiography."
      • With embarrassment at seeing her three food-covered pets just after they have smashed a shopping cart into the glass front door of the title venue in "The Supermarket."
    • Mittens covers her face with a paw when Bolt starts in on a Hurricane of Puns in "The Coyote."
    • When James the Director realizes his TV show script has been changed radically and he won't get to use the music he had hoped for in "The Pilot," he puts his face in his hand and sighs dejectedly.
  • Happens a good amount of times in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, almost always from one of the many Deadpan Snarkers of the fic.
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Yang is more than a little exasperated at how Ruby can remain chipper even while stranded in another world.
  • The Big Reveal has Merlin and Arthur switch lives with their actors, Bradley and Colin.
    Colin: Well, maybe when we get to Camelot, you should refrain from kissing Gwen. In public. Or ever.
    Bradley: Hell. Gwen. What am I going to do?
    Colin: I know. Usually you have to do three takes before you get the kisses right.
    [Bradley gave in to the urge to facepalm]
  • In The Blue Blur of Termina, Tatl does this in response to Sonic's hesitation during his first use of the Deku Flower.
  • I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC:
    • Green Goblin's drugged antics make Spider-Man facepalm himself.
    • Green Goblin manages to make Batman do this. And Green Goblin wasn't even drugged at the time!
    • Green Lantern does this while Deadpool was singing to Ryan Reynolds.
  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Haruhi facepalms after realizing that Kyon's gotten himself in trouble with the School Council by hanging Yamane Jun out of a window.
  • Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 2, Shinji has just prevented a plane from crashing. He boards the plane, asks if anybody has been hurt... and a guard of Asuka's security detail announces he bit his tongue. Asuka facepalms.
  • In Opening Dangerous Gates, Laxus does this when Makarov tries to hit on Rangiku, embarrassing everybody.
  • In Shadows of Giants, Kenji does this so often in response to the Mane Six's antics that his forehead becomes red.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: Here: "Three arguing warlocks stood around a waist-high pedestal covered in schematics. One kept tapping the blackboard behind him with his index finger, smearing the scrawled runes on it in the process. The other held up an open book like a ward against ignorance, pointing at a certain passage. While the two shouted at each other, the third covered his forehead with one palm while glaring at the wax dripping onto his notes from a toppled candelabra."
  • Reaction Spandex: As Deadpool and Spider-Man are doing a reaction video to the Super Power Beat Down match between Wolverine and Wonder Woman, Spidey is naturally drawn into facepalming several times, especially whenever Deadpool mentions Wonder Woman's "forms".
  • In My Little Animaniacs, Scootaloo and the Brain do this when Apple Bloom drags them all the way to Manehattan to visit Babs, only to admit that she doesn't even know where she lives.
  • In Broken Twilight Snape does it when Dobby refers to him as "Harry's bat."
  • In Per Volar Su Nata Raven does it when Fred, George and Beast Boy team up to play a prank on Speedy.
  • In A Fanfiction Carol, Petraverd (the first ghost, in the form of a unicorn) face-hoofs whenever Smooge, after showing some sign of progress, acts like The Ditz-of-a-fangirl she still is.
  • In A Shadow of the Titans, Raven facepalms after hearing Gadjo's "explanation" for how relationships work.
  • In Echoes of Yesterday, Battery from Worm covers her face with her hands when Assault of all people decides to lecture Supergirl on proper hero etiquette.
    Assault took that moment to rejoin the conversation and promptly put himself between me and Battery, "Hey now, you better not be sneaking any peaks on Puppy with those see-through eyes of yours."
    I paused, trying to figure out what he meant while Battery covered her face and sighed.
  • In crossover fanfic Displaced (TheMountainJew), Rose Wilson almost facepalms when Catwoman tells her to ditch her guns after hiring her services.
    "Alright! That's enough doom and gloom for today. Put your gear on, grab a bagel, and let's get going. And no guns!"
    "And what's I am supposed to use then? A shovel?" She asked sarcastically.
    "Sure, why not? We... just need to get one first."
    Rose resisted the urge to facepalm.
  • In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Ash does this when he learns that "Tri_pod" — a person online who knows about the train that kidnapped Chloe — is just the name of his Unova rival "Trip" with a space and 'od' at the end to make a pun.
  • In Harry and the Shipgirls, due to the shenanigans on both sides of the crossover, the "forbidden romance between face and palm" is a Running Gag.
  • In chapter 16 of The Echo Ranger, Advisory does the nose pinch version when she realizes she just handed Izuku a perfect argument in their verbal debate. And All Might does the more classic version when Melissa references Pokémon to summon her Zord.
  • In A Force of Four, Fury covers her face when Queen Hippolyta tells her mother about her lover.
    "Ohhhhhhh, hell," muttered Lyta, and hid her face in her hands.
  • The Day After You Saved the Multiverse: Clark buries his head in his hands when his mother demands answers about his newly-developed powers, adding she will not put up with bad attitude as he is spilling the beans.
  • In Ragnarok (Skeptikitten) Light does this when Sayu meets his "new friends" while insulting all of them:
    Light sighed again, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. That migraine was assured now- damn all little sisters to the blackest pits of hell.
  • In My Master Ed, Edward and Van get food soon after the former frees the latter from slavery and Van is left dumbfounded at how generous he’s being.
    Ed: What, you don’t like it? You could have told me before, you know, then I would have gotten you something else!
    Van: No, I...I just...I never had pomegranate soup before.
    Ed: Why? It wasn’t that expensive.
    Van: *rubs his temples* Slaves don't have their own money.
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In Chapter 9, Vivienne Graham pinches the bridge of her nose when Mothra snaps her out of her immediate thoughts about Ghidorah. In Chapter 10, Mark Russell buries his face in his hands when he learns that journalists saw Vivienne and San fighting Rodan.
  • In Dragons Speak Parseltongue Too, You Know Hermione does it when Luna undresses without explaining she has a bathing suit underneath and Harry averts his eyes.
  • In Glory in the Light of Hope Hermione does it when a recently-blinded Harry brandishes the cane she made him and pretends to be a swordsman.
  • Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: This is a common response to Harry's antics.
  • In Harry Potter: The Warlock of Slytherin Iris does it when Daniel loses 25 points for deliberately insulting Snape.
  • In Wind Shear Cygnus does it when Charlus informs him of Voldemort's ancestry and Cygnus realizes that he and his family have been supporting a half-blood.
  • In Across The Time Harry does it when Dean comments that someday there may be books and even movies based on his, Ron and Hermione's exploits.
  • In The Price is Right Justin does it when his fellow first-year Hufflepuffs fangirl after Harry uses the levitation spell to save Neville from injury during flying lessons.
  • In The Savior and the Scourge Harry does it when Minister Fudge and half a dozen Aurors storm into the Great Hall.
  • In A Dance All My Own Harry does it when he asks Cedric to call the cavalry and Cedric asks why he'd want to summon a bunch of horse-mounted fighters.
  • In Deductive Thought Snape does it when he announces that they're going to brew hand sanitizer and a Muggleborn student takes a bottle from their schoolbag, puts it in their cauldron and states that they're finished.
  • It's amazing the characters within Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità haven't knocked themselves out with how much they face-palm.
  • Much Ado About Shakespeare: Love's Labours Won: So much shame, so much face-palming! It's all over the fic.
    • Archie Kennedy scrubs his hand over his face when he realizes he and Horatio Hornblower will spend 50 hours together on shore leave and he needs to hide his feelings for his best friend and superior officer.
    • Horatio sighs and runs a hand over his face when Archie yet again quotes Shakespeare and he's most definitely not in the mood because he barely slept and is tired as hell.
    • Archie drops his head into his hands and bites back on the urge to scream. One of his post-panic attack's face-palms.
    • As Archie's still recovering from his panic attack, he sighs and runs a hand over his face.
    • Archie runs his hands through his hair, then rubs them roughly over his face "as though to scrub the last half hour out of existence" — also still in the streets after his panic attack.
    • Horatio wants to check a quote from King John. He sighs and "runs a hand slowly over his face" when he realizes he unfairly accused Archie of cheating in the bet and not valuing their friendship.
    • Archie flops down upon his bed, lies on his back and his hands cover his face. It happens as Archie is shamed when he remembers he was drunk and flirted with Horatio in public.
    • Archie buries his face in his pillow as he remembers his self-pitying recitation of Sonnet 25.
    • Archie jerks slightly and "rubs at his eyes" when Horatio comes to their room they are sharing at the inn.
  • The Ultimate Evil:
    • Valerie has a habit of doing this as she witnesses the Chans failing in their attempts to resolve situations with their poor choice of words. One of these instances is when Jackie attempts to convince Captain Black that Jade is possessed by Shendu.
    • In the sequel, Valerie, Nat and Drago all facepalm when the Chans fail to convince Larry to let them peacefully exorcise Dai Gui's chi out of him.
  • A Star To Steer Her By: The reaction to EDI's logical reasoning that dysfunctional families in dire need of therapy make an acceptable template for behavior as Shepard has referred to Normandy's crew as a dysfunctional family on multiple occasions.
  • When Reason Fails:
    • Katsuki is prone to slapping his face in response to Izuku's antics. He hits himself hard enough that it sounds like a gunshot.
    • Shoto has an epic one (complete with exasperated sigh) when the little girl sitting on Izuku's lap, eating his lunch and calling him "onii-chan" reveals she's the Outsider of Existence.
  • The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds: Celestia facehoofs hard enough to cause a minor quake when she realizes she forgot to tell Megan about Cadence.
  • Escape from the Moon: In the sequel The Mare From the Moon, this is Starlight’s reaction to learning how one of Spliced’s old classmates reacted when he failed a history exam, insisting he was right and the textbook was wrong.
  • Naru-Hina Chronicles:
  • True Potential:
    • Han facepalms when he realizes that teaching Naruto how to meditate is going to take a lot of work.
    • In the omake from Chapter 13, this is Kurenai's reaction after reading Anko's scroll titled "How to be a badass proctor for the exams" (along with tossing it to the side).
    • Ibiki does this when Anko yells "HEAR THAT WHISKERS? EVEN MORINO FUCKING IBIKI IS PRAISING YOU!" to Naruto during the final part of the Konoha Chūnin Exams.
    • In Chapter 39, Masakado facepalms when both Naruto and Tayuya fail to make a sealing paper remain stuck on the wall.
    • Upon seeing Naruto giving a peck to Hinata, Shikamaru has this reaction as he finally realizes that the reason why Anko made him and Dosu come along with her to do some errands was just so Naruto and Hinata could spend some time together alone.
    • Han has this reaction more than once when Tayuya tries to find him a girlfriend. Similarly, Kurotsuchi, Roto, and Risho all facepalm when Tayuya only has one single argument over Susumu dating Han (which is that they're both artists).
    • In Shimo, Naruto and Hinata try to find some way to help Fū after the latter lost control of Chōmei. The Hyuga has the idea of asking a jinchūriki to talk to Fū. In response, the Uzumaki comments that he could send a message to Han in Iwa, only for Hinata to point out that the two jinchūriki from Kumo (Killer Bee and Yugito) are both present in Shimo. Naruto facepalms upon realizing his mistake and chuckles over it.
    • Risho facepalms when Roto makes the mistake of asking Kurotsuchi if it's true that she and Shikamaru "are really that kinky in bed".
    • Kido Tsumiki facepalms and says "Zip it, geezer." to Yoshikane when the latter feels the need to insult the former while they're trying to exit Konoha.
  • A Crown of Stars:
    • In chapter 35 Rayana is giving Shinji tips to understand women. She face palms during the conversation at least once when he is not getting something.
    • In chapter 69 Asuka and Shinji reveal to everyone that they are expecting. Touji blankly asks "Waiting what?" His girlfriend Hikari groaned and put her hand over her face.
  • Advice and Trust: In chapter 4 Shinji did a double facepalm after Asuka all but blew their cover (they were trying to keep their relationship secret and she pretty much shouted at a classmate that they were having sex).
  • Aki-chan's Life: In the sequel to The Second Try Asuka facepalms repeatedly here and here while Kaji is putting his foot in his mouth in spectacular fashion.
  • Doing It Right This Time: Asuka facepalms when she finds out that Shinji did not know that pilots get paid.
  • Evangelion 303: Misato pulls it several times:
    • In chapter 3, after Asuka has botched a mission because she was too busy inquiring about Shinji's sex life to focus on performing her task.
    • In chapter 11, Asuka has been ordered to test a prototype war plane despite of not being psychologically stable. The test goes awry, and Misato -who had talked against putting Asuka in that plane-, facepalmed as wearing a "I knew it" expression.
    • In chapter 14 Misato had been complaining about missing pilots. And then new pilots arrive and she realizes that they are guaranteed to make trouble. So she facepalms in irritation.
  • Ghosts of Evangelion: Misato does a double face palm when Asuka takes offense at being compared to Ritsuko.
    Misato covered her head with her hands. "Don't be childish," she mumbled. "I compared you to my best friend, not to the monster she became."
  • Rise of the Minisukas: The antics of Leader and her minions to keep Mana away from Shinji are silly enough to make Shiki cover her face.
  • Read the Fine Print (Evangelion): Misato slaps her forehead when she realizes that Shinji Ikari is Asuka's pen pal who sold his soul to her in exchange for chocolate as a joke.
  • Scar Tissue: In chapter 17 Shinji has this reaction when Asuka tells him she has been angry and avoiding him for one week because she was jealous of him and trying to protect him from herself. Shinji slaps his forehead, groans and says it is the most stupid thing he has ever heard.
  • You Are (Not) At Fault: Ritsuko facepalms while listening to Misato and Asuka bickering during one operation.
    Somewhere deep underground, a soft slap was heard in the command centre of NERV, as Ritsuko Akagi's palm met her face for the umpteenth time since she'd first met Misato Katsuragi.
  • Zealous: The Sea Devil (who created all the devil fruits) creates a specific one to stop the Dark Dark Fruit and plants it so Shanks will eat it and stop Blackbeard. Then Luffy eats it instead. Cue facepalm.
  • The Season's My Reason: In "Tunnels, Bugs, and General Idiocy", because of the chaos of Manatsu getting stuck between the walls, Sango chasing a bug, and Nozomi bursting in thinking a baby is born born (It Makes Sense in Context), Chiyu can't help but facepalm.
  • In chapter four of Twinite, this is Sarah's reaction to her Uncle.
    Turning away from the 'I know I'm cool' look, I rest my head in my palms. Well, more like nearly gave myself a concussion with both my hands. Facepalm, apply directly to face.
  • From Bajor to the Black, Part II has Eleya do this when she finds out that, with everybody who was on the bridge dead courtesy of the Borg, the Closest Thing We Got to a conn officer is an ops ensign who likes to play a holodeck program of Operation Return.
    Eleya: (facepalm) Fine, we don't have time to be picky. Ahead full.
  • Peace Forged in Fire, Part II has one from General Brokosh after Captain Koren starts complaining about missing the entire Big Badass Battle Sequence.
    Koren: Tal'Shiar scum! This is Koren, daughter of Grilka, Captain of the glorious IKS bortaS’qu! You will—what the… What do you MEAN we missed out on a glorious battle? ARGH!!!!!! I haven’t seen any action since Qo’noS! Why does it ALWAYS take an impending apocalypse for me to get to kill things???
    Brokosh: (facepalm) Koren, you damn fool, get back in formation.
  • In Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo, both Vader and Sidious mentally do this when Padme assumes that "Darth" is the former's actual name, rather than a title.
  • In Keepers of the Elements, there are quite a few moments that cause these for various characters, from bad guys to the protagonists.
  • In Learning To Be Human, there is a Running Gag about Taylor's "palm and forehead's torrid love affair".
  • In Confusion Is Mine, Saith the Lord Harry, Ron and Hermione do it when after Dumbledore announces that Sirius is the substitute Care of Magical Creatures teacher, someone shouts that "everybody knows" he's a murderer who bought his way out of Azkaban and Sirius replies "Ah, my first victim!"

    Film — Animation 
  • Done by The Carpet, of all characters, in Aladdin; especially impressive, as it doesn't have a face nor a palm. Immediately followed by Aladdin himself, as he's trying to explain to Jasmine why he lied to her about the first time they met. Even Genie does it in the same scene. Well he hits his head, but still, it counts.
  • Towards the end of Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, during Alice's trial, unbirthdays are brought up, which causes a whole new party, and of course the Mad Hatter and the March Hare have to sing "A Very Merry Unbirthday to You" for the Queen of Hearts.
    Alice: Oh no, not this again! [facepalm]
  • Before they meet Anya, Dimitri and Vlad are holding an audition for girls to play Anastasia. One prospect is a middle-aged woman, who says in a sultry voice, "Granmama! It's me, Ana-STASIA!" Their reaction is a combination Head Desk and Facepalm.
  • Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods:
    • Asterix is facepalming on the poster in reaction to the idiocy of his fellow Gauls falling for the appeal of the Mansions of the Gods.
    • The Centurion double-facepalms as Cacofonix is singing and causing a panic among the civilians, and he can't even command his legionaries over the sound.
    • Caesar pinches the bridge of his nose when a beaten-up Squareonthehypotenus welcomes him to a banquet in the middle of the chaos.
  • Beauty and the Beast:
  • Hiro adopts this pose at the end of the first trailer for Big Hero 6 after his attempt to suit up Baymax ends in failure.
  • BoBoiBoy: The Movie: Bora Ra rolls his eyes and puts his palm to his head in disbelief when Adu Du goes goo-goo eyes for Kiki Ta.
  • In Bolt, one of the mooks gets zapped when trying to facepalm while wearing an electric glove.
  • Brave:
    • Merida pulls her wimple over her eyes when Lord Macintosh presents his son as one of her suitors, clearly disgusted by his macho show-off routine and the situation in general. She facepalms directly when the brawl starts for the second time and her father joins the fray.
    • Lord MacGuffin facepalms after his son's arrow misses the bulls-eye.
  • Brother Bear:
    • Kenai facepalms when he realizes he has no choice but to escort Koda to the Salmon Run. But he goes with it so he could become a human again.
    • Tuke does it in the sequel with his hoof, when Rutt goofs up his attempts to flirt with the moosettes.
  • Chicken Little:
    • The coach of the baseball team the title character is on does this when Chicken Little swings the bat when he was just told not to.
    • Kirby also does this after trying to explain to Buck Cluck multiple times where his parents are, of course it doesn't help that all he speaks is gibberish.
    • After when She says "Oh, Ace, NOOO!!!". Ace Does That.
  • Despicable Me has Gru pinching the bridge of his nose upon seeing Dr. Nefario's "boogie robots". Gru holds up his palm when Nefario is about to say something and then quietly tells him that he asked for "cookie robots". He then walks away wondering why Nefario is so old.
  • The Emperor's New Groove:
    • Yzma does this. Pacha also does this and massages his head.
    • Kronk does this also in Kronk's New Groove.
  • The matador in Ferdinand the Bull delivers an epic one.
  • In Finding Nemo, Crush does this when Marlin says he needs to get to the East Australian Current. "You're ridin' it, dude!"
  • Frozen:
    • Frozen: During "Fixer Upper", Kristoff facepalms when the trolls tell him that he should get Anna's "fiancé out of the way" so that he can be together with her.
    • Frozen II: When the group is introducing themselves to the Northuldra people, Elsa facepalms as Olaf starts detailed recap of how they got there.
      Olaf: I got this! It began with two sisters...
  • The Great Mouse Detective. Basil has a particularly pained one when Dawson gets drunk and makes a fool of himself onstage when they're supposed to be undercover.
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • Done in Kung Fu Panda 2 whenever Po makes an idiot of himself. A notable version is Crane who, lacking hands, pulls his hat down over his eyes instead (it's the scene where Po destroys the toy cannon thinking it's the BFG).
    • In Kung Fu Panda 3, when another panda named Li Shan who has arrived in the noodle shop tells Po that he's come looking for his long-lost son. Po sympathizes, telling Shan that he's also looking for his long-lost father. The two then wish the other luck in looking for their family before wandering off. Cue a mass facepalm from the crowd watching the exchange.
  • In Lilo & Stitch, after Stitch escapes from his confinement and goes to hyperdrive, Captain Gantu does this while saying, "Get me Galactic Control..."
  • The Lion King:
    • Scar massages his forehead softly as he utters, "I'm Surrounded by Idiots."
    • Rafiki does a depressed one in the sequel after he sees Simba exiling Kovu.
  • The Little Mermaid:
    • Ariel during Scuttle's "little romantic stimulation".
    • King Triton does a rather sad one during his My God, What Have I Done? moment.
    • Sebastian after Flotsam and Jetsam foil his plan to have Ariel and Eric kiss.
  • Pete in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, after putting up with the Beagle Boys' cluelessness.
  • Mulan: Mulan does this along with saying "Oops..." after the matchmaker calls her name and she yells "Present!" leading to the matchmaker saying "Speaking without permission..."
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack facepalms himself after Lock, Shock and Barrel bring back the Easter Bunny instead of Santa (who Jack calls "Sandy Claws") and start fighting over it.
  • Open Season:
    • In the first film, Beth groans and facepalms herself while in Gordy's police station to confront Shaw.
    • In Open Season 3, Gisela and Giselita do this sometimes (and at the end, they do a two-handed facepalm together as the ladies are starting to dance with Ian, who is their coach). Stanley also does this after Roger says, "It's destiny!" when the pets come to save Boog from the Maslova Family Circus.
  • In The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, the Pirate with a Scarf does one during the Pirate Captain's, sorry, the Scientist Captain's "scientific" presentation. Interestingly it starts off as a forehead facepalm, and steadily progresses into a full double-facepalm as the scene goes on.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Mitch does this before explaining Tag to the girls.
  • The Princess and the Frog:
    • Mama Odie covers her face with her other hand when Tiana misses the entire point of the Aesop song "Dig a Little Deeper".
    • Dr. Faciller pinches his nose after his gang of evil shadows takes a severe beating from a firefly.
  • Ratatouille:
    • Rémy facepaws a few times, mostly around Émile.
    • Colette while Ego is observing the kitchen in Gusteau's after his meal.
  • Maleficent in Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty facepalms when she realizes her minions have been looking for a baby... for 16 years.
    Maleficent: Oh, they're hopeless. A disgrace to the forces of evil.
  • In Shark Tale, Don Lino does this and says "Oy vey." in annoyance at his henchman Luca putting the record on the wrong song, which was "Baby Got Back (I Like Big Butts)" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Frankie also does this.
  • Shrek:
    • In the first movie, Lord Farquaad does one when Shrek is easily defeating his knights.
    • In Shrek 2, Fiona does one while Shrek and her father are arguing over each other's parenting skills while messily tearing apart food.
    • In Shrek the Third, Prince Charming does one when Pinocchio is taking too long to explain Shrek's whereabouts.
  • Spider-Man: Spider-Verse:
    • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
      • As Miles Morales attempts to unstick himself from the ceiling by singing "Sunflower", Peter Parker initiates a double facepalm that rivals those of Jean-Luc Picard.
        Peter: Teenagers are just the worst.
      • Gwen Stacy has her palm firmly glued to her face while watching Peter Parker makes a fool of himself before this universe's Mary Jane (who believes he's just a waiter).
    • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Jessica Drew orders the Spiders that were in Mumbattan to return to headquarters, including Miles. Hobie Brown tries to claim that neither he nor Miles follow orders, but Miles eagerly agrees, eliciting a facepalm from Hobie who knows the truth of why the Spider-Society wants him there.
  • Strange Magic: The Bog King does this when his bodyguards fall into sleep in front of him.
  • A mass one occurs in The Swan Princess. Princess Odette and Prince Derek are expected to go through an Arranged Marriage but because the idea was formed while they were kids they started to hate one another after being forced to spend multiple summers with another. However, upon seeing one another as adults they instantly fall in love and Derek announces to start the wedding. Odette isn't too keen on this and asks Derek why the rush. Derek responds it's because he thinks Odette's beautiful. Odette is flattered by the compliment, but wants to know if that's the only reason Derek wants to marry her. Derek responds "what else is there?" His mother promptly started crying and everyone else groaned at Derek's sheer lack of tact.
    Lord Rogers: You should write a book. How to Offend Women in Five Syllables or Less.
  • In Tarzan II, Kago does this gesture after his brother Uto says that if their bones were hollow and they were able to fly, they'd be the "biggest birds in town".
  • Toy Story 3:
    • A 17-year-old Andy does one of these when he believes his slightly aged mother has thrown out his toys.
    • Woody does one when he finds out Buzz thinks he's a Space Ranger again.
  • Disney apparently likes this trope; it happens thrice in Treasure Planet. The best one is Silver and Jim doing one simultaneously, then just... looking at each other.
  • Wallace & Gromit:
    • Gromit does this frequently.
    • An example from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (even funnier when everyone else says stuff along the lines of, "THAT'S BRILLIANT!"):
      Lord Victor Quartermaine: How on earth would those tiny-minded buffoons ever catch such a big rabbit?
      Lady Tottington: Mr. Wallace?
      Wallace: Um... with a big trap!
      Gromit: [facepalm]
    • There's also Victor doing this after PC Mackintosh says "the beast [were-rabbit] isn't actually dead yet?!" with a megaphone. It's even funnier while said character is doing the gesture, the said officer said "oops" with a megaphone.
  • One is shown in Wreck-It Ralph when Vanellope learns how to drive. Ralph is trying to keep a safe distance from her so her car doesn't hit him (again). When Vanellope's car hits a stalagmite, Ralph does a facepalm as it falls down on him.
  • Paul does this in Yellow Submarine after Ringo cracks a pun regarding the sub's broken engine:
    John: Maybe we should call a road service.
    Paul: Can't, no road!
    Ringo: And we're not sub... scribers.
    John, Paul and George: "Sub scribers"... ooh. [Paul facepalms]
  • Zootopia:
    • Judy's mother does this gesture during the opening talent show when Judy is dying melodramatically on stage.
    • Bogo also does one after Bellwether texts the Mayor that Judy is taking the Otterton case.
    • Nick facepalms when Judy declares that she's a cop to Mr. Big, despite his best efforts to convince her to keep her mouth shut.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Ian Hawke does this in Alvin and the Chipmunks when the Chipmunks start going crazy from drinking coffee.
  • Annie Hall: Alvy Singer does this in a flashback to his childhood:
    Alvy Singer: [voice-over] And Ivan Ackerman. Always the wrong answer. Always.
    Ivan Ackerman: Seven and three is nine.
    Alvy Singer: [facepalm]
  • Apollo 13:
    • Flight Director Gene Kranz reacts with a subtle one and some exasperated snarking on learning that the only available spare carbon-dioxide scrubbers on the stricken spacecraft (from the dead Command Module) are square, and the receptacle for the only working scrubber system (in the Lunar Module) is round.
      Gene Kranz: [facepalm] Tell me this isn't a government operation... I suggest you gentlemen invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole. Rapidly.
    • Another one happens a little later on, when Mission Control MacGyvers a solution, which includes using their spare urine bag. Which leads to this exchange:
      Fred Haise: Shit, I tore it.
      Jack Swigert: Shit.
      Fred Haise: Houston, what do we do if we rip the bag? Can we tape it?
      Andy (CAPCOM - WHITE): They just tore the bag.
      Technician: [facepalming] Oh, no.
  • In Back to the Future, Doc Brown does this right after Lorraine asks Marty to the dance, suddenly realizing that Lorraine (Marty's mother) has developed romantic feelings for Marty.
  • One scene of Beverly Hills Cop features a variety where a cop pinches the bridge of his nose and looks down dejectedly as Axel is talking about him to the boss. (This is actually so he can disguise how Eddie Murphy is making him laugh.)
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Willy Wonka in the 1971 film adaptation Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory facepalms while standing and watching Veruca make a mess out of the Golden Goose room.
  • In the live action Disney Sing-Along Songs video "The Twelve Days of Christmas", Mickey facepalms during the titular song when Goofy admits that he lost track of it after the "9 pipers piping" verse.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Serizawa facepalms in abject horror when he realizes that Emma is planning to set all the Kaiju loose on the world as a way of saving the planet, wholly and arrogantly assuming that they'll just do whatever she wants them to.
  • The Great Dictator shows mr Jaeckel facepalming in the background when he is a helpless witness to a bunch of storm troopers trying to lynch the Barber.
  • In Groundhog Day, Phil does a head-pillow variant when he tells a shrink his problem and the shrink answers, "Can you come back tomorrow?"
  • In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a flashback detailing the backstory of the title golden army has a group of pseudo-stop motion wooden puppets acting it out. Whenever the elf king is described as being upset, he declines into a facepalm.
  • In The History Boys, Timms performs an admirable Head-Desk in exasperation with his schoolwork.
  • In Independence Day, President Whitmore and General Grey both facepalm while Julius is scolding them for doing nothing to prevent the alien invasion, bringing up Roswell and Area 51. This is before they learn that it's all true.
  • The 1939 Screwball Comedy It's a Wonderful World note  features back-to-back scenes with facepalms, first from Jimmy Stewart's wrongly-accused fugitive, then from the police chief leading the manhunt for him; both are reacting to disastrous "help" they are getting from other characters.
  • Jesus of Nazaretheven there:
    • First, Judas Iscariot does a double one when Jesus insults pretty much everyone in the Sanhedrin (Judas had hoped for dialogue, Jesus spoiled every chance of it).
    • Later, Pontius Pilate is seen rubbing his forehead when encountered by people from said Sanhedrin discussing how to deal with Jesus. He even asks himself how it is possible to govern such people.
  • Kong: Skull Island: After getting separated from his squadmates and being unable to contact them, leaving him alone in Skull Island's forests, Chapman acknowledges to himself that "life sometimes punches you in the balls", and he pinches the bridge of his nose. He's visibly about to graduate to the Double Facepalm when the Spore Mantis shows itself.
  • Beta does one when he sees a Zandozan ship land in the distance in The Last Starfighter. It's a rather unusual example, as his head isn't attached at the time.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is advertising the Turkish film Last Stop: Salvation with a screencap featuring a facepalm.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Loki has an awesome one near the beginning of Thor when Thor decides to journey to Jotunnheim.
    • In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket does a double-facepalm when Groot goes Leeroy Jenkins on their prison escape plan.
    • Rocket also facepaws in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 after Baby Groot, being tasked to retrieve Yondu's prototype fin, instead comes back with his underwear.
    • Avengers: Endgame:
      • When Thor rambles about his experiences with the Aether, everyone aside from Scott (who is enthralled by it) is just waiting for him to finish, with about half the team facepalming.
      • Bruce claps a hand to his face after witnessing past-Hulk throwing a temper tantrum, jumping up and down on a car and hurling debris.
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Mantis is holding her head with both hands as Drax is giving Quill a great (i.e. disastrous) demonstration of his "grasp" of analogies.
  • In Max, the titular Jewish art dealer buries his face in his hand when Adolf Hitler goes into yet another rant about blood purity.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur and Lancelot do this when they realize the Epic Fail of Sir Bedevere's "Trojan Rabbit" plan — what with none of the knights having gotten into the contraption before they rolled it up to the French castle.
    Arthur: Who leaps out?
    Bedevere: Well... Galahad, Lancelot, and I... Leap out of the rabbit.
    Arthur and Lancelot: [facepalm]
  • Used in Naked Gun 33 1/3, which had the audience members of the Academy Awards all doing this when Frank gives the Big Bad a bomb.
  • Natural Born Killers: Scagnetti does this over his own stupidity when Mickey says, "I was out of shells." Scagnetti combines the Face Palm with "D'oh!" as much as that fork in his throat will allow.
  • Nathan Lane's character Max Bialystock in The Producers has a record number of these throughout the movie.
  • RoboCop:
    • The Old Man, head of OCP, does this at least once in every movie. He does it after ED-209 malfunctions in RoboCop, and again in RoboCop 2 after viewing the suicidal RoboCop prototypes.
    • RoboCop 3 sees Sgt. Reed do this after dealing with a lawyer and his client, a transvestite who was about to shoot a porno, after they attempt to rebut his remark about the video crew being non-union, as opposed to the fact that said porno would've involved a German Sheppard.
  • In Sidekicks, Mr. Lee (Mako) face-palms when Barry starts training with nunchucks and hits himself in the groin.
  • Star Wars: In 'The Empire Strikes Back, Leia covers her brow with her hand after the Falcon'''s hyperdrive fails yet again, for the third time.
  • The Suicide Squad: Bloodsport starts rubbing his brow while Harley is arguing that she'd have noticed if some guy named Milton was with them all along....
  • John does this when his mother, Sarah, goes on a rant about men and creation after Dyson talks about Skynet in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • In Tintin and the Blue Oranges, Captain Haddock is trying to explain to the hard-of-hearing Pr. Calculus that the eponymous orange has been stolen, and has to resort to yelling. Finally, Calculus exclaims that if the orange has been stolen, he needs to be told clearly and without circumlocution. Cue Haddock facepalming in exasperation.

    Jokes 
  • Yo' mama got an ear on her forehead! When you told her you got suspended from school, she went (does a facepalm) "I don't wanna hear it!"

    Literature 
  • At the end of Jules Verne's Around the Moon, the leader of the rescue team realizes that the crashed spaceship they are looking for can actually float, so they searched it in vain for many days with bathyspheres on the ocean floor. He then performs a facepalm, forgetting about his Hook Hand, and knocks himself out.
  • In Bad Kitty: Kitten Trouble, Kitty facepalms at the idea of bringing a group of kittens into the house to temporarily shelter them during a neighborhood conflict.
  • The Bible: Depending on your translation, one that's Older Than Feudalism: Ezekiel 36:31: "Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices." However, the literal Hebrew can be understood to read: "...and you will grab your faces for your sins...".
  • The Canterville Ghost: When Virginia hears how sad Sir Simon really is, that he cannot sleep and longs for peace in death, her eyes grow dim with tears and she hides her face in her hands.
  • Captive Prince: Nikandros, Damen's childhood friend and trusted advisor, usually expresses his frustration with his King's foibles in this manner. For Laurent, whom he doesn't like or trust, Nikandros gives the Disapproving Look instead.
    Nikandros held his gaze, then let out a breath and passed his hand over his face, massaging it briefly.
  • The eponymous protagonist and Only Sane Man of The Chronicles of Steve Stollberg facepalms whenever someone says something stupid.
  • Discworld: Near the end of Men at Arms, Sam Vimes does this when he is told that Captain Carrot has come to the tradesman's entrance of his house.
  • Earth (The Book) has this reaction after the author's answer an FAQ regarding the competing theory for Evolution — namely, creationism.
    Q: Six days? Six days?!?
    A: [Covers eyes, shakes head.]
  • Emma: Emma is ashamed of her meddling and her tricks when Harriet shows her her old treasure, a keepsake from her infatuation with Mr Elton. Emma puts her hand before her face and jumps up from her seat.
  • In the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! book Harold & Hog PRETEND FOR REAL!, Hog double facepalms after Harold says that he is going to be careful while smiling and dancing and flying, pointing out that Gerald would never smile and dance and fly all at the same time.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy: In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox slaps both of his foreheads when he realizes he's in Milliways.
  • In the Honor Harrington novel The Honor of the Queen, Ambassador Langtry does this when Mr. Houseman reveals his idiocy and upgrades to a double when things go From Bad to Worse.
  • In The LawDog Files this is described as the Migraine Salute.
  • The father of Little Critter is seen doing this on the cover of Just Helping My Dad as Little Critter stands holding a shovel in a puddle of water created from a hose he left running.
  • The Lost Fleet: Captain "Black Jack" Geary is frequently driven to this trope by the modern (i.e. a hundred years after his time) faith that "fighting spirit" makes up for a total lack of tactics.
  • In Naptastrophe, a children's picture book by Jarrett J. Krosoczka about a little bunny who wouldn't take her nap, the father facepalms after the bunny has a meltdown at the store because she's tired and the bright lights are bothering her.
  • In Persuasion, Captain Wentworth "passes his hand across his eyes" when he talks to Anne before the concert. They talk about Louisa's fall from the steps and he remembers that he failed to catch her.
  • In Star Wars: Jedi Academy: The Phantom Bully, the Padawan Roan Novachez resorts to this after hundreds of voorpak clones run riot at a talent show where he and his friend Gaiana were supposed to perform an act with a trained voorpak. His notoriously strict Jedi Master Mr. Garfield asks him what's going on and he tells him while facepalming that he doesn't want to know.
  • Tomcat Blue Eyes' Diaries: It has a cat variant — Face Paw. White Whiskers Rusty runs his paw over his face when Blue Eyes says cat's whiskers are for looking beautiful and being all dolled up.
  • Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff "struck his forehead with rage" when Mr Lockwood told him about his nightmares.
  • Averted in The Night's Dawn Trilogy when it's mentioned that one character would have put his head in his hands if it weren't for the fact that he was pulling a high-G maneuver in a spacecraft at the time.

    Live-Action TV 
  • USA has a commercial for both Burn Notice and White Collar that has Peter Burke noticing Fiona's gun that she has taken out of her purse at lunch to answer her cell phone. When she tries to cover the gun with her purse, a grenade rolls out of the purse. Michael's facepalm is almost as epic as the trope image.
  • Accused (2023): In "Morgan's Story" Jason does this after seeing Flaco's testimony fall apart on cross-examination by Morgan's lawyer. In short order, the judge dismisses all the charges.
  • René in 'Allo 'Allo! facepalms frequently when Michelle of the Resistance introduces another of her brilliant plans, when his wife sings, when Monsieur Leclerc messes up or shows up in his Paper-Thin Disguise, when malaproperstastic Officer Crabtree opens his mouth, when Camp Gay Lieutenant Grubers hits on him. Basically at least once an episode, and other characters might join him as well.
  • Ally McBeal: Many characters many times, usually when they screwed up at court or at the meeting. Very often it was Richard Fish who caused his colleagues to bury their faces in their hands. Sometimes they got to the level of synchronized triple Face Palm.
  • America's Got Talent:
  • One of Jack Benny's signature bits was to look at the camera with a hand to his cheek and a pained expression on his face.
  • It would be easier to list a Bar Rescue episode (particularly in the case of a stress test) where this is an Averted Trope.
  • A sketch from The Benny Hill Show combines this with physical comedy when one character (Benny Hill), upon seeing his friend (also Benny Hill) with a huge bloody hole in his forehead, asks him how he came to get it. He answers that he had recently been in the company of a woman but failed to realize her very obvious signals... and, upon doing so much later, put his hand to his forehead — forgetting he had a sharp piece of equipment in his palm at the time. The funny part is, upon demonstrating what he did to his friend, while holding the pointed bit of metal, he manages to put a second hole on the other side of his brow.
  • Barney Miller: Barney Miller gives one when Inspector Luger incites a riot by telling a group of protesting Orthodox Jews to "go home and shave."
  • In The Big Bang Theory, Leonard probably does the longest facepalm ever televised when the science panel they are supposed to be speaking on deteriorates into complete and utter chaos as Howard and Bernadette start comparing Howard's... umm... weaponry to one of her ex's. Once he realizes that nothing will save the situation, he joins the "fun".
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
    • "Thanksgiving": Captain Holt covers his face with his hand when he finds out that he and Jake have to continue in the investigation because the guy they caught bet the money on the football game. He starts facepalming as Jake excitedly keeps spinning his story about Captain's Holt undercover persona, telling us that Jimes's father was murdered by a bookie.
    • "Payback": Jake Peralta facepalms for a really long time when Captain Holt congratulates Terry and Sharon on expecting a child. After all the effort the whole office made to delete an e-mail from Terry's account... because Terry wanted to keep the pregnancy secret for a while.
    • "The Overmining": Captain Holt covers his face with his palm when he has to deal with an incompetent Captain Jason Stentley. One facepalm comes when Stentley admits being terrified while undercover and says that in the worst case, he will start shooting things. And then another facepalm comes when Stentley's left in the van to keep an eye out and listen as Holt and Jake talk to the suspect, trying to make a deal and gain evidence, but Stentley keeps talking in their earpieces.
    • "99": Amy buries her face in her hand when Jake wants to prove to Terry that he learned how to do the worm and starts showing off his dance moves.
  • On Boy Meets World, Shawn and Minkus both facepalm in unison when Mr. Feeny assigns them as partners.
  • Giles, mentor for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, often takes off his glasses and squeezes the bridge of his nose when confronted with the thought patterns of teenagers. He also tends to clean his glasses with a handkerchief a lot.
    Buffy: Is that why you're always cleaning your glasses? So you don't have to see what we're doing?
    Giles: Tell no one.
  • The comedian Jasper Carrott used to do the "forehead slap" a lot.
  • The Colbert Report:
  • Columbo: Lt. Columbo would do it quite a lot when something obvious would suddenly occur to him.
  • This was played with in Criminal Minds, where the team leader does a face palm after the team geek makes a particularly dorky statement. However, it turns out that he's experiencing a headache due to an injury sustained in the previous episode (where he was blown up by a car bomb).
  • CSI: NY has these from time to time.
    • Danny does it at the end of "Oedipus Rex" when he realizes what he missed out on by turning down a date with one of the Suicide Girls.
    • Mac does the face-wipe version when he's chewing out any of his team, particularly with Flack for going A.W.O.L. in "Cuckoo's Nest," and Adam for deliberately disobeying a direct order in "Unfriendly Chat."
  • Sergeant Wilson of Dad's Army would sometimes pull his uniform cap down over his eyes to avoid seeing whatever hilarity was ensuing that week, as a way of introducing a little variety to the facepalm.
  • A favourite of Jon Stewart in The Daily Show for when politics gets really dumb.
  • Doctor Who: The Doctor does this on occasion.
    • One (staged) Hilarious Outtake has a CGI werewolf face-palming.
    • The Doctor gives one in "Doctor Who and the Silurians" when Lethbridge-Stewart interrupts his questioning of Ms. Dawson just as she's about to come clean.
    • "The Age of Steel": The Tenth Doctor does this during his conversation with the Cyber-Controller.
    • "Resolution" has the Thirteenth Doctor do a particularly exasperated one upon learning that UNIT has been suspended due to budget cuts.
  • When the financially hopeless Lord Grantham is talking about investing his fortune on Downton Abbey, he mentions that there are schemes out there that offer a double or triple return on investment — "There's a chap in America, what's his name, Charles...Charles Ponzi who offers a huge return after ninety days." Matthew can be seen facepalming.
  • The father on Family Ties is reduced to a face wipe version of this and borderline angrish when he came home early to find a wild college party going on the house.
    "There was...a kangaroo...in my house..."
  • In Farscape, the mercenary Bekhesh performs a faceplatepalm when Stark explains that the plan to attack the Shadow Depository relies on a silent count — in the middle of a potential shootout with the guards.
  • Firefly:
  • Friends: The Friend most likely to be reduced to sinking his face into the palm of his hand at the insanity of the rest of the gang is Chandler, who resorts to it often. It goes along with his Deadpan Snarker role in the group. However, the others get their moments, too, and Chandler's also been the cause of some on top of that.
  • On Get Smart, the Chief gets "headaches," grasping the bridge of his nose with his fingers, whenever Maxwell Smart does something particularly stupid.
    • In one post-Channel Hop episode, Max does the palm-in-face version when 99 is shown to have acquired some of his habits.
  • In Glee, Kurt has never gone as far as an overt facepalm, but in moments of intense exasperation will press two fingers hard against his temple. It's the understatedness of the gesture that makes it so effective.
  • Hell's Kitchen: If Chef Ramsay didn't use the Cluster F-Bomb, he will use this. As well as a headdesk.
  • In the Here Come the Brides episode "The Legend of Bigfoot," Clancey does this after he tries to shoot Bigfoot with a small cannon but hits Lottie's saloon instead.
  • General Burkhalter in one episode of Hogan's Heroes. Understandable, since he A: is a general for Those Wacky Nazis and B: has Colonel Klink as a subordinate.
  • Horatio Hornblower: Horatio facepalms in "The Duchess and the Devil" when he learns that some men of his crew plan an escape from their imprisonment. He wants to escape as well, but they want to leave Archie behind and it's all too clear to Horatio that their hasty plan cannot succeed.
  • Dr. Wilson, from House, does this a lot, mostly when he's confronted with House's antics.
  • iCarly
    • Spencer balls his fist onto his face when the European swimsuit models dance goofily.
    • Carly slaps her forehead with her palm upon learning Sam's mom has no idea what iCarly is.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "The Thing Lay Still", Tom Anderson covers his face with his hand because he's embarrassed by Lestat de Lioncourt's tasteless public display of pretending to eat a toy baby on the Krewe of Raj float, which scandalizes the crowd.
  • The IT Crowd:
    • Jen or Roy would often facepalm to express their frustration or humiliation.
    • When Roy and Moss run on a bomb disposal robot, the whole company watches them from a safe place and everyone facepalms epically.
  • There's a sketch from It's Marty in which a terrible elderly couple utterly demolish a travel agent.
    Travel Agent: Would you like to travel by plane, train, or coach?
    Couple: No.
    Travel Agent: ... No, what?
    Couple: No, thank you.
    Travel Agent: That's bett—(facepalm)
  • Kamen Rider Kabuto. In the Hyper Battle Video, Arata Kagami attempts to perform a Rider Kick using Kabuto's style. Tendou Souji couldn't bear to watch the Epic Fail that ensues.
  • In "Lazy Scouts" on LazyTown, as a Funny Background Event during a good portion of the "Lazy Scouts" song, Stephanie is standing in the background, doing a double facepalm, rolling her eyes, putting her hands on her hips, shaking her head, or otherwise expressing disgust.
  • Pop from The League of Gentlemen does a wonderful facepalm when he is told a minor amount of chocolate has been stolen from one of his news stands.
  • In the pilot episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm double-facepalms in exasperation and humiliation after his teacher stands him in front of his class to patronizingly tell them how he's "very different, in his brain!" from his classmates, after he is revealed to be a genius. He is still facepalming in the next scene when he's in the middle of his new gifted-section classroom, then gingerly peers through his fingers, providing the clip used as the title card of every subsequent episode.
  • The Mandalorian: In episode 2, Kuiil actually facepalms with a groan when the Jawas start demanding "the egg" in exchange for the Mandalorian's ships parts.
  • Al Bundy sometimes does this on Married... with Children when life was acting particularly cruel to him. He also does the head-desk variation in one episode when he bashes his head against the table in frustration while trying to pay some bills.
  • In The Mentalist, Teresa Lisbon, gobsmacked by the antics of her consultant Patrick Jane, teeters on the edge of executing one for seasons 1 and 2, before she finds out in Season 3 that Jane broke into a suspect's house for the information they used to arrest him — in the middle of the suspect's trial — resulting in a beautiful example of the trope.
  • Mimpi Metropolitan: Facepalming is sometimes the reaction of people who are frustrared at Pipin's stupidity.
    • Everybody's reaction to Pipin thinking that Bambang's scream is caused by a horror movie instead of a massage in episode 26. Pipin doesn't get why they are doing it so joins in too.
    • Melani, Bambang, Prima and Mami Bibir's reaction to Pipin not getting Alan's love confession in episode 57.
  • The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo. The title character does this at the end of the Title Sequence when all his deputies crash their squad cars into each other after Sheriff Lobo tells them to "Move 'em out!"
  • Monk:
    • In "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", we see Monk openly facepalm as he watches Natalie essentially steal Captain Stottlemeyer's new police car to go to what she thinks might be her daughter's murder.
    • In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", Natalie gives one when Monk tries bribing a bartender for information with just a $1 bill and a quarter.
  • Monday Mornings: Viewers get to see characters facepalming all the time, both for their own failures or because others failed spectacularly. It might be expected in a Medical Drama dealing with professional screw-ups. They are seen especially during their M&M [Mortality and Morbidity] meetings, but there are several during legal meetings or after surgeries. Some Face Palms were related to shame warped by personal relationships.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus:
    • In the sketch "How to Buy a Mattress", John Cleese does this after the second time Terry Jones says the word "mattress" around Graham Chapman.
    • The Spanish Inquisition sketch has a double facepalm when "the rack" is produced.
  • Bull Shannon from Night Court actually adopted the gesture before Captain Picard. Though Bull was usually face-palming his own idiocy.
  • On NUMB3RS, Charlie did this once when Larry said that perhaps the suspect could be in two places at the same time. (It was a quantum idea.)
  • In Odd Squad, this is Olive's defining Character Tic, often pinching the bridge of her nose whenever someone does something stupid or she becomes exasperated. She also does a double-facepalm in "Moustache Confidential" after Otto gifts Ori a puppy during the former's interrogation of the latter.
    • Otto ends up doing a double-facepalm in "The Potato Ultimato" when watching Oscar play with his figurines. He also does another facepalm in "Captain Fun" and another in "Disorder in the Court", although those are one-handed ones.
    • Ms. O does a facepalm once in "The O Games", and another one in "The Voice". She also does another one at the end of "Who Let the Doug Out?", only instead of using her palms, she curls her hands into fists.
    • Even the Genki Girl Olympia isn't above facepalming when getting frustrated or anxious, as shown in episodes like "Extreme Cakeover" and "Dr. O: Party Time, Excellent".
    • Otis does one at the end of "Three's Company" when Olympia suggests that she, him, and the rest of the agents can work in Ms. O's office. In "Slow Day", while he is initially so distraught by the slowed-down clients that he actually starts to cry and lays his head on the desk, he eventually does a proper facepalm.
    • Oona's facepalms are often the result of Olympia's antics, such as in "Drop Gadget Repeat" and "The Cherry-on-Top-inator".
  • On The $100,000 Pyramid, host Dick Clark facepalms after disclosing that the Mystery 7 bonus prize was a 1968 automobile instead of 1986. This was because sometime earlier on the daytime $25,000 show, he misidentified a car as being a 1958 instead of 1985.
  • Pee-wee's Playhouse. In the episode "Stolen Apples", after Mrs. Steve tells Pee-wee that Randy has been stealing her crab apples again, Pee-wee facepalms himself.
  • Radio Enfer: Jocelyne once manages to make her hand puppet Frisou do this in response to her husband Gilbert Comically Missing the Point regarding going on a movie date with her.
  • Red Dwarf: Both Lister and Rimmer frequently facepalmed because of each other's insane ideas, general smeg-headedness or extreme and disgusting slobbishness.
  • Rosie & Jim: In an episode about John wanting to go somewhere quiet, Rosie keeps banging a saucepan lid. Jim says Rosie can only come if she is quiet. Rosie says "OK", and drops her lid on the floor with a loud clatter, causing Jim to facepalm.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch: In the season 3 finale, Harvey falls for one of Salem's pranks (he was under a "Doctor Dolittle spell" to let him talk to animals, and at one point, Salem tricks Harvey into looking at his butt, then says "Made you look!"), and does this in response.
  • Saturday Night Live: In a 2020 sketch with Brad Pitt as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the reaction after a clip of Donald Trump suggesting we should use ultraviolet light inside the body to fight COVID-19 is naturally a facepalm.
    Dr. Fauci: I know I shouldn't be touching my face, but...
  • Sherlock
    • Inspector Lestrade has a truly epic one after Sherlock pulls a gun on a group of police officers, pretends to take John hostage, and the pair take off down the street while still handcuffed together.
    • John also did one when he found a head in the fridge. Later on, he did it again during an incredibly awkward meeting between Molly, Jim and Sherlock himself. Molly is trying to provoke Sherlock into jealousy. Jim is unashamedly fawning over Sherlock. Sherlock is being obnoxiously rude to both. And everyone is ignoring John. Good times.
  • Star Trek:
    • The very first one in Star Trek: The Original Series happens in the pilot episode with Captain Pike when he tries keeping up a steady stream of hateful, violent thoughts as Psychic Static. Vina, who'd been living with the Talosians for twenty years and told him she'd tried that more than once, just puts her hand to her face when the Talosians proceeded to give him the mental agony beam.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
      • Captain Picard often does this, as the Trope Image from "Deja Q" shows. The image of Picard has become the patron saint of facepalming. The alternative "Single Head Double Facepalm" was featured in "The Offspring".
      • Commander Riker had a memorable facepalm in "A Matter of Perspective", the very next episode after "Deja Q", humorously enough, seen here.
      • There's a meme image where, in the Riker image above, they photoshop the Picard facepalm for a "double facepalm". A further "triple facepalm" also adds Worf.
      • Picard had a pretty amusing facepalm in "Symbiosis" during the first season.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Sisko is often fond of the pinching the bridge of one's nose variation of this trope. Kai Winn is most often the cause. But he lets out a few outright facepalms here and there.
    • Star Trek: Voyager:
      • "Death Wish": Q performs an elusively rare variation on the double facepalm. That is, two faces, one right palm per face (this is not a recommended procedure for mere mortals). Oh, whatever was the gesture for? Well, Vulcan logic is no fun, basically.
      • In "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy", the Doctor was posing as captain while aliens threatened attack. When he started improvising his lines, Janeway facepalmed.
      • In "Projections", the Doctor gets frustrated when the tricorders won't pick up anyone else's lifesigns but register him as a human. In an attempt to figure out what's wrong, Captain Janeway orders the computer to deactivate all holograms on the ship, and she and everyone else on the ship except the Doctor disappears. The Doctor puts palm to face.
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Maddie Fitzpatrick did this quite a bit during her brief stint as the producer of Yay Me! starring London Tipton.
  • Supergirl does one in season 1 episode, "Falling", as a My God, What Have I Done? moment when she laments to Alex about all the bad things she did under the influence of red kryptonite, knowing fully well that everybody in National City will hate her for it.
  • Bert Convy did this in embarrassment whenever he blurted out the clue word or solved the password in Super Password.
  • A scene from Too Close for Comfort episode "The Remaking of Monroe" has a co-worker say he is surprised that Henry is 52 years old (he thought he was two years older). Henry then asks Monroe (who just arrived at Henry and Muriel's apartment a couple of minutes before to ask for money to attend an assertiveness training seminar) how old he looked. Muriel (who is standing behind Monroe) mimes to him a response by holding up four fingers on her left hand and five on her right. You would think the response he would go with based on Muriel's hand signals would be "45", but instead Monroe goes with the response, "nine". What Muriel does is actually more of a head palm, but still...
  • Evelyn does this in Two and a Half Men at Charlie's funeral when Rose describes how he wasn't in pain at his death (his body merely exploded like a meat sack when that train hit him).
  • In the Czechoslovakian sci-fi series for kids The Visitors (1983), the forehead slapping variant of Face Palm became a running joke. When the group of scientists from the 25th century first came to the 20th century, they stopped for a group of hitch-hikers. The guys were happy at first, but seeing that the car was completely full, one of them just slapped his forehead in silence. Professor Richard concluded that it was some kind of greeting and he started using it to everyone's utter confusion. Eternal Czech was not even an issue and communication was more or less ok, but something as universal as Face Palm is apparently unknown on Earth in this vision of blissful and very much Star-Trek-esque future.
  • President Bartlet from The West Wing does the head desk variation on the frickin' Resolute desk while stuck listening an Old Soldier Old Diplomat's "fascinating" stories about various Cold War-era foreign relations escapades.
  • In Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012) Justin uses this a lot. And everyone has used this at least once when it comes to Max.
  • The X-Files: Over its nine-year-long run, the show had several facepalms of various flavours ("Am I the last sane person here?", "I can't believe I did something this stupid", "All right, what now, any other crazy idea?", "Oh no, not this", "Oh no, not this again!", "Could this be any more humiliating?" or "I might as well break down completely.").
    • "Syzygy": Mulder rubs his face with a hand when Detective Angela White comes to his motel room and he's not sure what's going on exactly.
    • "Bad Blood": Scully facepalms when Mulder wants them to compare their accounts of one curious case that involved Mulder sticking a stake into a teen's chest. The facepalm followed his Prison Rape joke about Scully' hypothetical prison mate nicknamed Large Marge.
    • "Patient X": Mulder is among panelists at a UFO conference. Other speakers take the abductions for granted and they enthusiastically talk about "the ontological shock" that must follow. Mulder is looking down, his hands are tightly joined and his thumbs touch his nose bridge. He's deep in thought, trying to strengthen himself... because he's about to call it all bullshit and blame it on The Government as their conspiracy.
    • "The Red and the Black": At the end, when Mulder is arrested by some military men and thrown to a car with Scully, he's tearful and he sadly covers his face. Scully touches his hands and tries to comfort him.
    • "Rain King": Scully facepalms when Mulder suggests that Holman Hardt is manufacturing the weather. The facepalm is complete with her "look."
    • "X-Cops": Scully holds her mouth and turns away from a camera when she finds out it's rolling for TV.
    • "Hollywood AD": Mulder and Scully are in the theatre, watching a film based on one of their cases and their characters. The audience chuckle, the actors look interested and pleased, AD Skinner looks happy. Scully watches the film in horror, but her shock and surprise is smaller than Mulder's, who just drops his head into his hands and hides his face completely.
    • "Hollywood AD": When Skinner tells Mulder that his friend from college, now a writer/producer, will shadow Mulder and Scully on their case, Mulder just rubs his forehead and asks if he pissed off Skinner more than usual.
    • "Je Souhaite": Scully puts her face in both her hands because she invited some scientists from Harvard to see an invisible body which unfortunately disappeared. She's beyond embarrassed.
    • "The Truth": Agent Doggett tells Scully that Mulder got death by lethal injection and understandably, Scully just loses it and heart-breaking sobs escape her uncontrollably. She covers her face with both her hands and continues to cry.
  • Zorro:
    • In the very first episode, Commander Monastario (while stuck inside a prison cell) facepalms as he watches Zorro utterly humiliate Sergeant García and the rest of his soldiers for the first time (but certainly not the last).
    • Zorro also takes a turn after watching Judge Vasca take a huge gulp of drugged ale, then go back for another sip... and yet another before the drug finally kicks in.

    Magazines 
  • Maclean's magazine columnist Scott Feschuk's author thumbnail has him doing this. Considering the fact that his column focuses on satirizing some of the most facepalm-inducing topics of the month, this is quite appropriate (it's also hilarious to imagine him doing it while typing out his article).

    Podcasts 
  • Random Assault: Mitch once tried to make one audible on the show.
    Mitch: Did you hear that? That was the sound of me face-palming, that was so bad.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Puppet Shows 
  • Parker on Mr. Meaty does this gesture in the episode "Hamish" in annoyance at Josh talking to Goth Girl.
  • The Muppet Show:
    • Sam the Eagle is a frequent practitioner of the facewingtip, but he will often simply utter his signature phrase, "You are all weirdos."
    • Others try them out now and then, such as Rowlf in the Rudolf Nureyev episode facepawing when Fozzie cuts through a candle with a blowtorch.
  • In Muppet Treasure Island, Gonzo does this when he sees that Rizzo is letting rats aboard and marketing the Hispanola's voyage to Capt. Flint's treasure as a pleasure cruise.
  • Betty Lou does so on the Sesame Street game show sketch "The Triangle Is Right" after Carl Mericana answers "A Circle".

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Pretty much any Game Master is expected to end up like this at least once per session, usually caused by one or more players' stupidity (or Pun). In certain circles, it's even nicknamed the GM's facepalm.
  • Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine: This is one of the standard XP Emotions, indicating a character who is hapless and goofy and thus can earn XP by inducing amused facepalms among the other players. Of the Glass-Maker's Dragon core characters, this honour goes to the Wishing Boy/Girl, a character whose use of the ability to rewrite the universe with few hard and fast restrictions largely boils down to "I wish seagulls were cooler" and failed attempts to get ice cream.
  • The Dresden Files Role-Playing Game: A picture in one of the rulebooks has Murphy doing one, with Harry commenting beneath the picture, "I make her do this way too much."

    Theatre 
  • In the 2000 production of Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas's reaction to Simon and his calls for armed revolution in the song "Simon Zealotes" is a series of continual face-palms, followed by continual glares at Jesus for allowing it to get this bad in the first place.

    Video Games 
  • ANNO: Mutationem: In the epilogue, Ann rushes to the room where Ayane is to check if she's safe, then sees her lounging with gourmet food and asking for more, causing Ann to facepalm upon seeing this.
  • In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, this is one of the gestures you can learn from Dr. Shrunk, the "Mistaken" gesture.
  • The "Look Skyward" gesture from Dark Souls is by no means about gazing upon the sky, it's actually a facepalm. You can even do a facepalm while carrying a BFS without the worry of weight.
  • Donkey Kong does this after losing a minigame in the first Donkey Kong Country.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII has a facepalm as one of his stock gestures, and he uses it often. The mannerism is iconic enough that it was carried over into the Kingdom Hearts games as well.
    • Final Fantasy VI
      • The opera Impresario, who's very sensitive about his operas, does this when an act goes wrong or when it may go wrong. It is probable, though, that his "face palm" is more of a corny, theatrical and/or dramatical gesture of distress, (you know, that old cover-your-face-with-your-arm/hand-whilds-wistfully-going-"Oh" thingy,) rather than the common, slightly more humorous usage of the gesture. This would make sense seeing as he is, well, the impresario of an opera.
      • A straight example of this occurs when Gau leads Sabin and Cyan to a cave, to show them a "shiny shiny". Once they arrive... he forgets where it is, cuing a facepalm.
    • Final Fantasy X: Tidus applies Percussive Maintenance to an ancient computer console. Rikku responds in tried and tested fashion.
      • Lulu responds to a lot of Tidus's and Wakka's shenanigans by burying her face in her hand.
      • When Yuna emerges from an Al Bhed ship, having beaten up its crew - rendering your party's rescue pointless - Lulu, Kimahri and even Tidus are shown doing this at once. Then the normal victory music plays.
      • Wakka does it when the party arrives in Luca and Tidus grabs a megaphone and starts shouting trash at the Luca Goers.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: Kent, whenever Sain starts making his moves on a girl. See on the right hand side here.
  • In Dead Space, the main character does a facepalm after he learns that his girlfriend, who he thought was alive, was Dead All Along. A sad facepalm indeed.
  • In the Professor Layton series, both Layton and Luke do this if they get a puzzle wrong. Layton pulls the brim of his tophat over his eyes, while Luke does the classic forehead slap.
  • In Utawarerumono, this is Eruruw's default expression for when Hakuoro does something stupid — but not stupid enough to get seriously angry over (which he does often).
  • World of Warcraft added a /facepalm emote in patch 3.0.2, although it only produces a predefined text message and not animated. It's also one of the few emotes the game's statistics page will track on your character; they expect you to use it that much.
  • Tales of Monkey Island gives the second-most-intelligent character in its opening sequence (namely: a monkey) one of these right before everything goes to hell.
  • Team Fortress 2
    • The Spy class on a losing team can be seen face palming if he is still alive during the aptly named "Humiliation" phase. He also does this in one of the official comics: In "A Smissmas Story", he face palms and rests his head on the desk when Soldier (acting as Spy and Scout's lawyer) encourages Scout to go with a completely ludicrous testimony.
    • The Sniper does the hat version in his "Meet the Sniper" video when he's trying to talk to his father on the phone.
  • In BlazBlue, Jin and Hakumen facepalm if they lose to Time Up.
  • Dark Forces Saga: Kyle Katarn will do this when he gets bored game-over due to some reason other than his own death.
  • Mass Effect:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • In Sonic Colors (Wii version), Sonic does a facepalm in the cutscene where Tails is attempting to figure out what the Wisps are saying. ("He says his name is Talks-a-lot and he's from a far off soda...") Yacker (the Wisp Tails was trying to translate for) also facepalms. At the exact same time as Sonic does.
    • Sonic facepalms up to twice more throughout Sonic Generations. First time is if Chemical Plant Act 2 is the second act of that level to be completed—after Amy speaks her line, Modern Sonic facepalms. He facepalms once more during the Reveal.
  • Psychonauts
    • If you're watching him, Raz pulls this off during the boss fight in Black Velvetopia. It's not the main focus, but not easy to miss, either — just pay attention to him while Edgar reverts to El Odio.
    • While we're on the topic, Sasha gets the chance at the end of the game, when Ford's psitanium wears off and Chef Cruller returns.
  • Also done in Brütal Legend (which is from the creators of Psychonauts). During the intro, the band Eddie was a roadie for starts their new song with a really badass and edgy guitar riff...only to transition into sissy pop singing. Eddie then facepalms.
    Eddie: I can fix anything...except that.
    Unnamed roadie: Metal is dead.
  • Ratchet & Clank: As of Tools of Destruction, Clank seems to be prone to this — it's usually aimed at Qwark... or, on one memorable occasion, the Plumber.
  • In the pre-release trailer for Transformers: War for Cybertron showing off the exclusive preorder character, Shockwave, Starscream gets one when Shockwave has "The Touch" playing during his scene.
  • If you play the game In the 1st Degree right, Tobin will do this shortly after having a meltdown in the courtroom. This is probably due to him realizing that he just effectively hanged himself.
  • In .hack//G.U., Haseo does this so often it's one of his standard animations.
  • One of Hawke's recurring animations in Dragon Age II
    Jansen the drunken miner: My farm supplied eggplant to half of South Reach!
    Other drunken miner: Oh yeah? Well, my eggplant supplied half the bastards in South Reach!
    (drunken laughter)
    Hawke: (facepalm)
    • Sarcastic Hawke pulls another one during the quest where he/she looks for an escaped prisoner in Act 1.
      Lia the kidnappee: He didn't mean to hurt me! There are demons who made him do all these horrible things!
      Hawke: (facepalm) I should remember this one. "A demon made me do it."
  • Ken does this in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo when his playfield his halfway full of gems.
  • Seen in the PlayStation 3 Updated Re-release of Eternal Sonata in the Lament Mirror dungeon. Frederic Chopin is stuck alone with the eight-year-old Salsa, who is whining about a lack of food, and asks him to use his magic powers to create a steak. He tells her that magic is not a tool of convenience and she throws a full-on tantrum, causing him to facepalm.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Before the first performance at the Half-Genie festival, we cut to Bolo, Sky, and Mimic all in the stands, eagerly awaiting the performance. Then Shantae is a few seconds late and doesn't get into position in time. Cue unimpressed looks from all three and a Face Palm from Sky.
  • In Star Wars: The Old Republic, on one of the Sith Warrior missions you have the option of sleeping with Lord Grathan's wife. Later you can brag about it to Darth Baras, prompting a facepalm from Vette.
  • Tales Series
    • In Tales of Graces, Cheria double facepalms after her attempt at seducing Asbel at the Beach Resort fails.
    • One of Kratos's stock skit animations in Tales of Symphonia is a very dainty facepalm.
    • Jade from Tales of the Abyss has a several variants in his skit animations as well (unsurprisingly, given his personality).
    • Tales of Xillia has Milla place her fingers on her forehead while slowly shaking her head back and forth when Ivar shows up making an ass of himself.
    • In Tales of Berseria, this is a fairly common gesture of Eleanor's, generally placing it on her forehead. For example, in a skit...
      Rokurou: I've got it. You hate spinach, don't you?
      Eleanor: (facepalming) I suppose there's no point in denying it.
  • The Game Over screen of Silver Surfer (1990) is the Surfer himself kneeling and facepalming. You'll be seeing this screen a lot.
  • Poker Night 2: Ash will do a dramatic double facepalm if he's not pleased with the hand he's dealt. He'll then proceed to try to bluff his hand after that.
  • The Gray Garden: During an early scene, Yosafire falls down a hole. Froze responds by burying her cheek in her palm and chewing her out.
  • It's easy to miss in Carrie's Order Up!, but should you lose a life while Calcia is on screen, she'll faceclaw at Carrie's clumsiness.
  • In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Edge can't help but do this after a strange conversation between Sarah and the King of Astral in which she gives him the "gist" of an official letter that she's apparently had for more than three years and had forgotten to give him up until then. (She says she was fifteen when she got the letter. The game's dictionary gives her age as 19.)
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link does this when Vilia's drag disguise is partly uncovered by a gust of wind and the latter tries to brush it off. Paya also tends to cover her face with both of her hands when getting flustered while talking to Link.
  • Marina of Splatoon 2 has a relatively calm version where after facepalming, she'll still give a cute smile over some of Pearl's derpier moments, like confusing "stakes" with "steaks".
  • In Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey, this is a fairly standard gesture for the elder Bernd whenever he's upset or troubled by something.
  • Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom:
    • Roland gives one after Evan keeps betting against a guard in a dice game who is using a dice that seems fairly obviously rigged and ends up ten million guilders in debt.
    • Later, it's Batu's turn when Evan agrees to help out a Grimalkin (cat-guy) named Tabbias in one of the game's many sidequests.
      Batu: Ye're far too soft, lad! Tryin' to help everyone ye meet'll be the death of ye, mark me words! Still, ye've promised now.
  • Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!: A fireman can be seeing facepalming during Larry's jump from the burning building.
  • In Dragon Quest XI, Jade does one if she messes up on the Electro Light pep power, summoning mechanical monsters instead of the hoped for Metal Slime monsters.
  • Yoshi's Cookie: Chef Mario does this when the player gets a game over.
  • In Cooking Stars Freddy buys a pie oven and Nancy asks if he actually knows how to make a pie.
    Freddy: I can chop fruit very nicely.
    Nancy: Leaving it up to me to do everything else. [facepalm]
  • In NEO: The World Ends with You, Minamimoto facepalms in restaurants if you're about to feed him something he doesn't like or he's already full.
  • La Corda d'Oro: Hino during an argument between everybody about eavesdropping. Also, Tsuchiura does this when Hihara gets mistaken for being Hino's boyfriend.
  • In Restaurant Merge Mina facepalms when one of the construction workers at Edward's beach restaurant tells her he's trying to get them to build an underwater area. She does it again after she comments that he wouldn't believe how tough building the Japanese restaurant is and he replies that he knew and that's why he left her in charge of it.
  • Certain raunchy scenes in South Park: The Stick of Truth were censored in particular regions, with a paragraph describing the scene over an image. In Australia, the image is of a crying koala. But in Europe, the image is of Michaelangelo's David facepalming in front of the EU flag.
  • In Double Homework, Morgan reacts with this at some of Amy’s attempts to “mug” people in the school hallways that Amy fails particularly badly at.
  • In Fate/stay night, Rin Tohsaka can often be found doing this, usually in response to something Shiro said.
  • Katawa Shoujo
    • Rin Tezuka has her own unique variation.
    • In Lilly's Act 1 ending, Hisao does this when Lilly responds to his asking about her being depressed over Akira's departure by saying that "Akira's taken."
      Hisao: Lilly never sees how fast my palm meets my face at her sly accusation.
  • Done in a single finger-way by Kotoko Minaduki in a concept art of Tokimeki Memorial 2; on the other hand, the final art scratches this in favor of a "let's ignore those idiots" look.
  • In Homescapes William claims that he's the world's most attentive husband. Austin says if that's the case then he should be able to repeat what Olivia said when she left. William replies "Wait, she left?" and Austin facepalms.
  • In Manor Cafe Emma suggests getting out the gardening tools because the garden needs more flowers, Meg thanks her for being there to help and Emma replies that she's just going to take some pictures. Meg facepalms.

    Web Animation 
  • The title sequence of AOK's Caillou the Grown Up videos shows Caillou's dad Boris exasperatedly pressing his palm against his face after witnessing his son cry because he broke off his shoelaces while trying to tie his shoes.
  • Veronica does this in the first part of Flicker when she's voted as the killer.
  • In the "record book" sbemail on Homestar Runner, when Coach Z announces his record attempt, Strong Bad finds it so monumentally stupid that he skips facepalming entirely and repeatedly smacks himself upside the head.
  • The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Epic-Man does one when he witnesses his Side Kick Epic Fail blow up his toaster by attempting to warm up his DVD player in it.
  • Dr. Greg Converse does this in Episode 42 of The Most Popular Girls in School when he tries to get Trisha to bitch him out... and discovers that she can only Poke the Poodle.
  • StrifeToons: In the second part of "Marine and the Dukeburger Outlet", Duke does a facepalm in response to Doom Marine happily playing in a pile of burger buns on the floor.
  • The video announcing the return of the TF2 Analysis shorts concludes with the line "That is... if we can find enough headache pills for the doc to cope...", and Dr. Wolf is seen facepalming.

    Webcomics 
  • Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: An annoyed Duke does a facepalm when he notices his siblings, two of whom are wearing silly disguises, spying on his date.
  • Books Don't Work Here: Two girls on their way to the mall, why is this example here? Link"He's (the author) putting us on a bus the week before he's moving and getting a new job. It's gonna be a long bus ride." That would do it.
  • Chiasmata: Daniel reacts this way after Sam expresses the desire to go investigate some mysterious casket they find. Especially since they had already seen some evidence that the whole place was an Eldritch Location, and the room and coffin were covered in what essentially translates as "Stay dead forever, please" (though to be fair, they had no way of knowing the last thing).
  • CoyoteVille: In the November 28, 2002 strip of the original run, Sean performs a facepaw in response to hearing that Ed collects dust as a hobby.
  • Deep Rise: Four characters, eight hands each, for a whopping 32x facepalm combo when they discover someone accidentally invented a living dildo from anime toy parts.
  • Dragon Ball Multiverse:
    • Cell when his Cell Junior risks disqualification after punching his opponent without touching the ring.
    • King Piccolo does this in response to Frieza asking who invited Broly to a villains' meeting in a minicomic.
  • Susan's facepalm reflex was developed with the help of her mom, and years of her acquaintance with Tedd only refined it. And now "Little Nase" working as semi-autonomous body extension allows her to stare in disbelief and do fairy-facepalm at the same time!
  • Errant Story: Sarine's relationship with Jon is largely a single, incredibly extended, highly expressive facepalm, but she does get to turn the tables and induce a classic one of her own in Jon's sister Sara.
  • Everyday Heroes: Mr. Mighty does this at his own stupidity. (See Homer Simpson example in western animation.) Apparently, it's hereditary.
  • Schlock Mercenary
  • Sergom: Bernard does a facepalm in the 7th strip, upon realizing that he must put in a code to access the flight panel.
  • Shot and Chaser: When Tre realizes that an incoming call is about yet another fraudulent account Emily has made using his address and phone number he pinches his nose with his fingers splayed over his cheek beneath his glasses in frustration and annoyance.
  • Sluggy Freelance: In 15/03/27, Torg made even the author facepalm in writing with his behaviour. Gwynn had just started liking/tolerating him, but then seen an image on his phone childishly mocking her and got angry. Torg's wondering at the changenote  and then seems on the verge of figuring out the reason — but what he actually came up with is that it must be her time of the month.
    Author's commentary: *facepalm* The top of Torg's resume skill-list should be pushing Gwynn's buttons.
  • Spinnerette
    • Sahira goes beyond Unsound Effect territory by turning "facepalm" into an actual expletive:
      Sahira: Facepalm! I think Mecha Maid is a lesbian who wants to have sexual intercourse with you.
    • And then... of course, it was bound to happen, Spinnerette having six arms: Facepalm ×6!
  • Underdogs:
    • Pretty much the constant state of Jacobson whenever Eric/Theo are involved.
    • Eric during the first time dealing with Theo in Issue 2

    Web Original 
  • There are giant montages available on certain image boards consisting of nothing but anime characters facepalming.
  • There are montages of facepalm pictures that, once zoomed out enough, look like Picard facepalming. Such as this.
  • "I told you to slay the dragon..."
  • There's a "special feeling meme", in which two characters will be shown being interviewed for TV, with one saying "Being in the snow with your lover immerses me with a special feeling. I like it." while the other one blushes and face palms. A Puella Magi Madoka Magica example is here.
  • The Gord, from the website Acts of Gord, apparently does this a lot. About every chapter of the "Books" has a small image of Gord facepalming while commenting on the worst idiocy on the page.
  • The Bandwidth Theater episode "Ninja Massage Therapist" sees the title character do a facepalm after catching himself in a dumb mistake.
  • DesuDesBrigade member CJ Hitchcock did this repeatedly during his Vampire Wars review when he found out that Kuki's code name would be Bat instead of Van Helsing.
  • The Mario Fan Games Galaxy forums contains a "facepalm" smiley, probably better known by its filename of "ugh.gif". It was used and abused so much that it was even temporarily filtered to "Don't worry, I can relate". This was taken from Something Awful. Facepunch Studios also inherited the smiley for a while, then took it out when it was abused in the In The News forum.
  • Not Always Legal: In this case, the defense lawyer put his head in his hands after his client asked the court "Yeah, so, if I'm found innocent, does... does that mean I get to keep the stuff I took?"
  • SF Debris: SF Debris very often talks about facepalming in his reviews of various sci-fi shows, focusing primarily on Star Trek. In the review of "Realm of Fear" from Star Trek: The Next Generation, he says he literally facepalmed when Deanna Troi counselled Reginald Barkley on his phobia.
  • superdickery.com found this entirely appropriate reaction.
  • Topless Robot often features the page image in their "Fan Fiction Friday" articles. In one example, they have a combination of this and the image of Toht's face melting in a "Toht-Palm" image for passages in fan fiction that are disturbing and nonsensical.
  • On TV Tropes, if a certain show/video game/comic/etc. has its own Wall Banger or DMOS page, odds are an image of one of the characters facepalming will be the page image.

    Web Videos 
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara ends up performing a facepalm while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet because a normal facepalm wouldn't be sufficient while reviewing The Star Wars (a comic book based on an early script for Star Wars: A New Hope) after Leia and Anakin (who in this story are two unrelated teenagers) confess that they're in love with each other after only a handful of scenes actually showing them interacting. And most of which have them being openly hostile to each other, with no hint of actual romantic interest.
  • The Autobiography of Jane Eyre:
    • In episode 3, Jane is absolutely desperate and touches and covers her face several times. She panics and freaks out because she's lost in the middle of nowhere at night, she lost her phone and can't contact the person who's supposed to give her a ride.
    • Jane facepalms at the beginning of episode 5 when she's exhausted and experiences "it's at the tip of my tongue" as she spent the whole day talking French with Adele, and cannot remember the word for "fatiguée". When she realizes it's "tired", she buries her face in her hands.
    • In episode 9 "Phlegm", Jane is ill and feels very down. She rubs her face and is on the brink of tears.
    • In episode 10, she touches her forehead in an exasperated gesture. It expresses how she's unsatisfied, lonely and restless. Also, it happened after an almost-collision with a car. People have a right to be upset after such experience.
  • Channel Awesome: Everyone of their team employs it every now and then.
    • Happens all the time with The Nostalgia Critic. In particular, he opened his review of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie with his head buried in his hands.
    • Variation of headdesk with Todd in the Shadows, after realizing what "Paparazzi" is about. While he has no desk available at the time, he does have a keyboard. And a head.
    • In an episode of Wrestle! Wrestle! for TNA Impact, Spoony has apparently gotten to the point where even saying "Dixie" (as in TNA owner Dixie Carter) causes a reflexive facepalm.
    • Diamanda Hagan is too important an Evil Overlord to facepalm by herself, so while reviewing Left Behind she calls one of her minions to present his palm so she can smack it with her forehead.
      Diamanda Hagan: Minion! Facepalm, now!
    • From the opening of Kickassia Part 5:
      Linkara: This is ridiculous! There is no strategy here! Plus, he's my archnemesis! It's...annoying!
      Benzaie: No, they're right. We've got to fight madness with madness. And he's the craziest we got. [to Insano] Are you ready?
      Dr. Insano: [evil laugh] I was BORN ready!!!
      [Linkara does a double facepalm]
  • Often performed (and lampshaded) whenever something particularly stupid happens in any of Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play. During The Runaway Guys's run of Mario Party, NintendoCapriSun coined a new term: "Face eyes"
  • Decker Shado does this so often in his reviews that his "Summer of Saw" culminated in getting hunted down by the Jigsaw killer for hurting himself that much.
  • Dana performs the two-handed version of this in the "Terrible Interviewees Montage" episode of Echo Chamber's Trope of the Week.
  • Feminist Frequency did one in response to LEGO Friends.
  • Flander's Company:
    • Hippolyte Kurtzmann sometimes holds the bridge of his nose while interviewing candidates.
    • The most beautiful is certainly Hippolyte and Cindy having a simultaneous one at the end of season 3 episode 16, when Trueman agrees to a cooperation with the ex-C.C Corp members.
    • The Brotherhood of Shadows' members have several despite their short screen time:
      • Lex Luthor, when Dr. Claw accidentally shows his true face.
      • Double-facepalm for Magneto when Dr. Claw and Dr. Doom start arguing.
      • Then Dr. Claw facepalming (with his gloved hand) at Doom's extremely lame joke.
  • Folding Ideas: In The Art of Storytelling and The Book of Henry, Dan rubs his temples for the same effect when Gregg Hurwitz talks about how tricky it was to walk the tightrope with the tone.
    Dan: Oh Jesus, they think they nailed it.
  • France Five, starting with episode 2, has an animated Eye Catch of the team doing a "Super Sentai" Stance. Although for the second part of it, they screw it up and most of them end up sprawled while Red Fromage facepalms.
  • The Joueur du Grenier is a frequent practitioner of the facepalm.
    • In fact, the conclusion of every opening sequence, just before the title shows up, is one.
    • In the Color Dreams video (during the Raid 2020 part), he does a facepalm while wearing a giant Mickey Mouse-style glove.
    • At the end of the second special (about cartoons), the completely over-the-top scene from The Prince of Tennis elicits this.
  • Kitboga is a scambaiter popular on Twitch and YouTube. In the animated version of "Buying Gift Cards Instead of Hot Dogs (for Scammers)," the scammer does this several times in response to Kitboga doing stuff like claiming not to know about Walmart gift cards. As Kitboga starts talking about having typed up an order for hot dogs on the Walmart website, he double facepalms.
  • In the Season 2 premiere of Noob, an elite player turns out to be the younger brother of Sparadrap, who's so oblivious to his gaming activities that's he's convinced that he doesn't know how to play the fictional MMORPG in which most of the story is set. The scene revealing the family relation between the two ends with Sparadrap kicking his younger brother off the computer so he can play himself, noticing that the new update of the MMORPG got installed without him doing anything and... deciding it somehow happened by itself. His younger brother's reaction inevitably ends up as this trope.
  • Out With Dad: Nathan and his dad both react this way when his mom worries Rose will cut her hair short, since she's a lesbian.
  • Guy Collin's Rage has God facepalm after a butterfly accidentally extinguishing a match triggers a chain reaction that ultimately results in the Earth plummeting into the sun.
  • In The Six Cats Parade, Torresminha (a gray tuxedo cat) did a cat facepalm in this video.
  • Stuart Ashen's video review of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen.
  • What the Fuck Is Wrong with You?: Nash often does this on his show in response to the rampant stupidity. Whenever he does this in his Doctor Who reviews, it usually comes with a sound effect as well.

    Western Animation 
  • Stanley does this a few times in The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan comics. Surprisingly, his easily-exasperated partner Henry only does this once (in episode 9 of the cartoon).
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: "The Brain" reveals that Anais has done this in response to her family's antics so many times, she'll get permanent brain damage if she does it again.
  • Amphibia: In "Hollywood Hop Pop", one of the FBI agents does this upon realizing what he believes is another hoax that Mr. X found involving frogs.
  • A common reaction to the antics of the Warner siblings in Animaniacs, especially from Dr Scratchansniff.
  • Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force will find himself many times engaging in this act, especially as a result of the actions of Master Shake.
  • At the end of the Arthur episode "Is There a Doctor in the House?", D.W. does this when Arthur starts sneezing.
  • The Avatar universe:
    • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
      • In "The Cave of Two Lovers" Sokka finds himself doing this a lot in response to the nomads' antics. So much so that by the end of the episode:
        Katara: Why is your forehead all red?
        Chong: Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you. I think that kid might be the Avatar.
        Sokka: [forehead smack]
      • In fact, Sokka does this a lot, leading many to speculate that doing it so many times resulted in the hardening of his forehead, which was why Ty Lee hurt her hand trying to strike it in "The Chase".
      • Zuko does it when Iroh flirts with an unattractive woman in "The Drill".
      • Zuko's nose pinch in "The Western Air Temple", when he remembered how much of a dork he was when he began his search for the Avatar.
      • Zuko appears to have a tendency to do this, especially in the comics.
      • Zukodoes variations on this a lot, especially when he's exasperated with himself.
      • Suki does it too in "The Boiling Rock" when Sokka tries (and fails) to cover-up the fact that they're hatching an escape plan. "The only thing we're hatching is... an egg?"
    • The Legend of Korra:
      • This is Mako's reaction to Korra messing up in her first pro-bending match.
      • The writers posted a picture of Toph doing this (with six fingers) after fans informed them that an animation error resulted in Toph having six fingers slipped through and got aired.
      • Asami also does this when Bolin pays the wrong people to reverse the Kangaroo Court Korra's parents are in.
      • Bolin himself does a forehead smack when Varrick ruins what is supposed to be a touching reunion between him and Zhu Li when he orders her to do some work.
  • At the end of The Beatles cartoon "Money," John facepalms when he finds out the money he kept in his pocket was Stage Money when he meant to keep the group's concert take in a plot to fool Ringo.
  • On the PBS animated version of The Berenstain Bears, this is Mama Bear's reaction in "The Green-Eyed Monster" when she explains the Green-Eyed Monster to Sister Bear after she wants to ride Brother's bike and she just whines "But Mama, it's such a beautiful bike."
  • Toa Tahu does this in BIONICLE: Mask of Light during a Kohlii match after Jaller dives right out of the way rather than blocking the oncoming Kohlii ball. Amusingly, shortly after, Jaller hits himself in the head with his Kohlii stick. It's an incredibly dramatic double-facepalm.
  • Code Lyoko:
    • In Garage Kids, the short pilot for the series, Ulrich is basically mute, but he does a great facepalm when confronted with Odd's antics.
    • In the series itself, Odd is the resident facepalmer.
  • Numbuh Five and Numbuh One of Codename: Kids Next Door are fond of doing this. Especially Numbuh One — fitting, as he's essentially a kid version of Picard.
  • DC Animated Universe:
  • The Dreamstone: Big Bad Zordrak does this fairly often in response to the incompetence of his mooks, the Urpneys.
  • From Ed, Edd n Eddy, when they break Jonny's house:
    Edd: I'm Melting!, It's become a sauna in here!
    Eddy: Sauna?! That's it! A SPA! Why fix THINGS, when we can fix PEOPLE?!
    Edd: [facepalms]
    • Edd facepalms again (this time with both of his hands) in the episode "Brother Can You Spare An Ed" when Ed gives into Eddy's badgering to spend Sarah's money on jawbreakers rather than fudge.
  • On The Fairly OddParents!, when Timmy is sleep-deprived and making wishes.
    Wanda: It's only a matter of time before he wishes for something really dangerous.
    Timmy: I WISH FOR A GIGANTIC MONSTER THAT WON'T GO AWAY UNTIL I TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT CHOMPY!
    [Fairies facepalm and then raise their wands]
  • Family Guy: This is the preferred response to Buzz Killington.
  • Some characters from Father of the Pride tend to do this, such as Larry, Kate, Sierra, Sarmoti, Siegfried, and Roy. It is most commonly seen with Sierra due to her easily annoyed nature.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: When Mac and Bloo head to test out their wooden car with Cheese on board, Cheese hysterically screams every time they try to go at full-speed. Mac immediately facepalms, which ends up for him and Bloo to drag the entire car down the hill for the entire duration of their time.
  • In Futurama's "Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love", Bender does this to Amy after she releases a crazed Zoidberg... for the 8th time.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Mandy often pinches the bridge of her non-existant nose when the situation calls for it.
  • Helga from Hey Arnold! does this in response to the antics of her alcoholic mother.
  • On Holly Hobbie and Friends: Christmas Wishes, this is Carrie's reaction when the Hey Girls are coming up with ideas to help the Deegans have some Christmas cheernote  and Amy suggests that they could organize their sock drawer.
  • Invincible: Played for Drama in the "Atom Eve" prequel episode. Right after Debbie leaves Nolan to give a bath to Mark Grayson's duct-taped body, Nolan briefly gives off a Death Glare because of Mark's powers not manifesting. Nolan's expression quickly disappears and his face is filled with a saddened look and then facepalms himself, most likely for his Conflicting Loyalty towards his family and Viltrum.
  • Peppermint Patty does this at the end of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown when Marcie eats her Easter egg without taking the shell off. This is after Marcie asked for egg-eating instructions and got them. "Tastes terrible, Sir."
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes has the title character doing this after Beezy once again fails to fail.
  • Kaeloo:
    • Mr. Cat does this quite a lot. In Episode 105, he uses the "pinching the bridge of the nose" variant of it several times.
    • Kaeloo herself does this on occasion when Stumpy does something stupid.
  • Doktor Frogg does this quite a lot in League of Super Evil when Voltar comes up with ridiculous and childish "evil" schemes. This is actually quite a talent, considering he doesn't actually have hands...
  • Looney Tunes:
    • In "Duck, Rabbit, Duck!", Elmer goes gunning for Bugs, and blasts a snowman-rabbit to pieces. Bugs floats down in a poor-quality angel costume, and Fudd falls for it. Cue angry, exasperated facepalm from Daffy.
    • Egghead does this in 1938's "Daffy Duck and Egghead" after Daffy and the ambulance driver duck give him the onceover.
    • In 1969's "Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!", Quick Brown Fox does this while watching Rapid Rabbit trying to retrieve a carrot from his trap.
  • In The Looney Tunes Show, this is Bugs Bunny's response to Porky Pig always falling for upsells. In fact, he does this three times before realizing his forehead's starting to bruise. After Porky had refused an insurance offer, an upsell that was considered practical, and gets his car wrecked, Bugs is about to facepalm again until he stops halfway... and slaps Porky upside the head afterward.
  • Kiva's reaction in Megas XLR to a fair number of events, such as Coop and Jamie letting out all the imprisoned aliens in "Breakout".
  • Molly of Denali: In "Wise Raven and Old Crow," Walter facepalms while chiding Molly for not tying the boat's rope correctly.
  • Done several times in Mr. Bogus:
    • Ratty does this at the end of the first act of the episode "Meet Mr. Bogus", in response to Bogus trimming the hedges in record time.
    • Tommy does this in the second act of the episode "Hipster Tripster", after learning that Bogus was responsible for letting the monkeys loose in the zoo.
    • Bogus does this in the first act of the episode "Computer Intruder", after he loses the space game that he was playing on Tommy's computer.
    • Near the end of the episode "Kung Fu Campout", Bogus actually does this when Mrs. Anybody takes away the cake before he and Brattus could take the first bite.
    • Tommy does this with his baseball mitt in the first act of the episode "Baseball Bogus", in response to Mr. Anybody's embarrassing cheer routine.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Twilight's typical response to the strange happenings around her, though some other ponies get one in now and then, too.
    • The other Ponies get in on it too, with Rainbow Dash doing a Double Facehoof at times. Behold fanart of a quadruple facehoof.
    • Angel Bunny does a facepaw whenever he finds Fluttershy frustrating.
    • One of the Diamond Dogs facepaws when Rarity is aggravating him.
    • Spike faceclaws from time to time. Notably in "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)": Spike's reaction to learning that the trio never made it out of the shallow harbor is a faceclaw with snout-pulling.
    • In "Inspiration Manifestation", Owlowiscious simulates this with his flight feathers when Spike reads the cover page of the book and says "I'm likin' the looks of this one!" Even more impressive in that he uses one of his wings to do it while in mid-flight, and still remains airborne.
    • In "Equestria Games", Spike's cringe-worthy attempt at the Cloudsdale anthem naturally induces this to much of the audience (both in and out of universe).
    • "Bloom & Gloom": This is Octavia's reaction in Sweetie Belle's dream when the latter gets a broom-and-bucket cutie mark. Then Rarity does a double-facehoof when she has to score her sister's performance.
    • In "Parental Glideance", Rainbow Dash is seen doing both a facehoof and a facewing while watching her Amazingly Embarrassing Parents' antics.
    • Now compiled in this handy compilation! Begins at 2:45.
    • For the background ponies, this seems to be Bon-Bon's default reaction to Lyra's antics when portrayed by the fandom. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch get in on it whenever the other tries to listen to their preferred music genre. In fact, the only real common pairing of ponies that doesn't have a facehoof specializer (regularly, at least) is Derpy and Doctor Whooves. Probably because they both have their antics at the same time.
  • Ned from Ned's Newt does this if Newton is acting unintelligible to him. An example is in "Broken Record" where Newton gets the idea to jump off a cow in an attempt to break a world record for Ned, much to the latter's disappointment.
  • Pat And Mat alternate as the face-palmer and the one who does something dumb several times an episode — don't count on the face-palmer's idea being actually better than that of his friend's, though.
  • Facewing by Connie Crane in "I'll Be Your Best Friend" on PB&J Otter when her husband falls into the lake after craning to get a look at Bucky Spacebeaver's showboat; Flick later on in the same story after Munchy brings Peanut a chocolate-and-tuna flavored cake and he realizes he's just been outclassed.
  • Paul Terry's The Three Bears had Papa Bear do this a total of five times. One of these five times he does this is when he delivers the quote that became a meme:
    Papa Bear: Somebody toucha my spaghett!
  • Pixar Shorts: In Mike's New Car, Mike facepalms himself after the windshield wipers went off when he put his seatbelt on.
  • Frequently used by Nesmith of Planet Sheen in regards to something the title character has said. And if you're familiar with Sheen at all, you can understand why.
  • The stallholder in Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Meet the Beat-alls", Princess facepalms in response to Mojo Jojo's lame pun:
    Princess: So tell us again why we're only stealing toilet paper, light bulbs, milk, flour, and eggs.
    Mojo: Well, Moko's idea is that stealing items that are all white isn't against the law. So it's okay to take them.
    Princess: Huh?
    Mojo: It's alright, 'cause they're all white!
  • This happens in all the time in Ready Jet Go!. For example, in "My Fair Jet", Sean facepalms after Jet says that he's from Bortron 7, not Earth.
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "Devil in the Deep":
    Alice Johnson: This will make for an interesting story. Especially the part where Dr. Venkman forgets the ghost traps.
    Peter Venkman: My mother reads Celebrity! [cue facepalm]
  • Vince from Recess often uses this trope.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power season 4 teasers contain this wonderful moment:
    Mermista: There is a Horde spy!
    Frosta: Who are the suspects?
    Mermista: EVERYONE! [Dramatic Thunder]
    Frosta: ...How are you doing that?
    Mermista: I PRACTICE AT HOME! [Dramatic Thunder]
    Glimmer: (buries face in hand)
  • The Simpsons: Homer Simpson sometimes combines this with his catchphrase "D'oh!", though it's when he does something stupid.
  • South Park:
    • Stan is a big fan of the "pinching the bridge of one's nose" type. It makes sense, as, thanks to Flanderization, he has a Liz Lemon Job. Often accompanied by a muttered "Oh goddamnit..." Apparently this is because series co-creator Trey Parker (on whom Stan is based) does this a lot in Real Life.
    • In one episode, we see his mother doing it along side with him, implying that he picked it up from her. Given to who she's married to, that may, very well, be the case.
    • Cartman does this in the third part of the Black Friday trilogy when Princess Kenny breaks up a blockade of ships trying to keep a shipment of PS4s out of America just by being cute.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Squidward does this occasionally, and will add to it by sliding his tentacle slowly off his face, causing his face to sag and then spring back into shape.
    • Plankton does this after telling SpongeBob to be more assertive and SpongeBob misunderstands.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • "Rookies": This is Commander Cody's reaction to Captain Rex's plan to fool the commando droids who've taken over the Rishi Moon outpost into opening the door (namely, impersonating one of the droids).
      Cody: This is never gonna work.
    • "Dooku Captured": Seeing Anakin smiling at the antics at the celebration, and sensing Hondo trying to walk up discreetly behind them, Obi-Wan shakes his head and briefly tilts his forehead into his palm.
    • "Secret Weapons": Commander Neyo's exasperated reaction to WAC-47's antics upon arriving at the briefing.
    • "A Distant Echo": Keeping a watch outside the barracks while Anakin is inside making a holo-call to Padmé, a clearly impatient Rex does this at one point.
    • "Gone With a Trace": Trace Martez does one after her sister Rafa makes a shady deal to build three droids, expecting her to do the actual work.
  • Star Wars Rebels:
    • "Droids in Distress": Minister Tua's reaction when protocol droid C-3PO starts loudly taking offence to being referred to as an "astromech".
    • "Fighter Flight": Kanan's reaction to discovering that Ezra and Zeb stole a TIE fighter.
    • "Empire Day": Kanan, again, when Tseebo walks into a door and falls down.
    • "Legends of the Lasat": Zeb's reaction when Chava and Gron kneel before him.
    • "The Mystery of Chopper Base": Sabine, when Kanan doesn't get her hints about Hera's feelings about him going on a dangerous mission without her.
  • Star Wars Resistance:
    • "The Recruit": Yeager, and several other people standing in the area, do this when Naïve Newcomer Kaz, unwillingly signed up for a solo race, picks Torra Doza as his opponent, the engine proceeds to blow out.
    • "The High Tower": Kaz has his first opportunity to facepalm, when the Literal-Minded Neeku decides to approach some visiting First Order personnel and straight-up ask them what they're doing on the Colossus. Fortunately for Neeku, they just brush him off.
    • "Bibo": Yeager facepalms upon seeing Bibo for the first time.
      Yeager: No pets!
  • Steven Universe: Amethyst facepalms during "Earthlings" when Peridot tries to use her magnetic powers to fight Jasper, to no effect. Until Peridot actually pulls it off.
  • Mac Mange, the Metallikat of SWAT Kats, has a metal face palm in "A Bright and Shiny Future" when his wife (with whom he co-ruled the city in a Bad Future) kept insisting that their robot servants were hers. Complete with metal clang.
  • In Sym-Bionic Titan, Octus' attempts at freeing Lance and Ilana from the Monster of the Week's movement-halting ability by trying to form Titan and provoking a reaction by electrocuting them only makes himself give a facepalm of discontent.
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Donatello facepalms when Michelangelo remarks on what a coincidence it is that a van has crashed into the Kraang's lair whilst the Turtles are sneaking in. Unfortunately, Donny is wearing spiked climbing-knuckles at the time. Ouch!
  • On Timothy Goes to School, Nora facepalms in "My Family" after realizing that what she thought was butterscotch pudding she brought from home as her lunch at dessert is actually her little brother Jack's baby food.
  • On ToddWorld, a facepaw is Benny's reaction in "Benny and Sam" upon discovering that Sam (short for Samantha) is a girl, and not a boy dog like he thought. He gets over it fairly quickly though.
  • On Toot & Puddle, Puddle does it in "Desmond's First Snow" when Toot says he can feel for sure in his ears that it's going to snow after already having been wrong once before.
  • Total Drama: There's always enough idiots around for someone to facepalm while dealing with them.
    • Tyler tries to come up with a one-liner to intimidate the Screaming Gophers in "Dodgebrawl", but what he comes up with is "we're gonna bring the dinner to the table and then we're gonna eat it!" Courtney can only slap her face in embarrassment.
    • Courtney facepalms a second time in "Dodgebrawl" when she can't conceive of a possibility for the Killer Bass to still win the challenge.
    • Katie and Sadie are the first to take a shot at getting to represent their team at the talent show that evening in "Not Quite Famous". They perform a dance together, which is so awful that Courtney's jaw drops and she slaps her face.
    • In "Phobia Factor", Heather puts her hand to her face when Leshawna, who is arachnophobic, goes running and screaming even when the spider she has to deal with is blatantly Chef in a pink spider costume.
    • Trent slaps his hand to his face when Lindsay steps right into the quicksand to save him and starts sinking too in "Up the Creek".
    • Justin facepalms in "Ocean's Eight - Or Nine" when Lindsay fails to open the vault with her junior high locker combination, thinking the code is standard issue and calling the vault's refusal to open bad school spirit.
    • Lindsay arrives at the Gemmie Awards in "Celebrity Manhunt's TDA Reunion Show" in casual dress thinking it was just a rehearsal. She tries to save her fashion faux-pas by pointing out the cute new earrings she's wearing, prompting Sierra to facepalm.
    • Sierra and Courtney are doing great fighting Owen and Tyler for the challenge in "Greece's Pieces". However, when Cody returns, Courtney calls him a pipsqueak, which prompts Sierra to let go of Owen and attack her teammate. As the fight goes from an assured victory to an embarrassing loss, Heather smacks her hand against her forehead.
    • Cameron facepalms over his own stupidity when Scott effortlessly tricks him into revealing that Mike has MPD in "The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean".
    • In "The Obsta-Kill Course", Mal tells Scott that Cameron kissing Courtney was Alejandro's idea to drive a wedge between the new couple. When Scott asks if he means a wedge of cheese, Mal's reaction in the confessional is to facepalm.
    • In "Mo' Monkey, Mo' Problems", the Pimâpotew Kinosewak manipulate the monkey that has their coin into giving it back by means of Monkey See, Monkey Do. Once the monkey realizes it's been tricked, it smacks itself against the head.
  • Transformers: Animated's Prowl, in the first episode, faceservos to Optimus' speech.
  • In Transformers: Cyberverse, Megatron's somewhat hyperbolic memorial to Starscream prompts Shadow Striker to bury her face in one hand.
  • Undergrads features a collective facepalm at a mixer in the first episode.
  • In the Wacky Races Forever pilot, Muttley slaps himself as his partner declares his intent to cheat, while they are sitting three feet in front of the finish line.
  • Wakfu:
    • Sadlygrove often inspires this to his friends — usually along with calling him a "Iop brain". Eva goes for the two-handed facepalm in episode 19 when Grovy gets himself into a duel with Prince Armand.
    • Jay the Iop also spurs Kriss Krass to facepalm during the Bontarian Gobbowl match.
    • Rushu facepalms when he thinks Anathar has just crushed his precious Eliatrope prisoner.
  • On Wonder Pets!, Ming-Ming does a facewing in "Help the Easter Bunny" after Linny asks what the song and dance routine he just made the group do had to with hiding eggs and he replies with "What eggs?" This episode being late in the show's run and her being the Little Miss Snarker of the group, it's probably not the first time she did it.
  • In Xiaolin Showdown, Chase Young uses one of the magical Shen Gong Wu objects to talk to animals and tell an army of monkeys to obey the every command of Jack Spicer. He facepalms when Jack tests the monkeys' loyalty by having them all do the robot dance.

    Real Life 
  • In the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster, Kirk Hammett is seen to facepalm as Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield engage in a less-than-adult bitchfight.
  • Gordon Brown made this gesture when told he got caught on tape insulting a member of the public behind her back, three days before a general election. Unfortunately, nobody told him about the camera in the radio studio, either. His spin doctors and assistants also had some pretty hilarious reactions when they realised that he'd just been filmed facepalming, unaware that they were being filmed too.
  • There's a DragonForce interview where Fred facepalms in response to Vadim interrupting to ask him for an autograph.
  • The ever-popular Bongo. Always disappointed...
  • A Pink Floyd photo session has the band making this gesture. It's even been turned into a motivational poster:
    "The Pink Floyd Facepalm. When a flying pig isn't enough."
  • Jonny and Colin Greenwood of the band Radiohead reacted with a double facepalm at the BUG Radiohead special when faced with one of the band's older music videos.
  • It seems to be the case here: [1]
  • Some mandrills can be seen doing this gesture in the zoo.
  • The FIFA World Cup logo for 2014, as seen here. Which, due to the Curb-Stomp Battle between Germany and Brazil (7 - 1) note , kinda makes it a case of both Unfortunate Character Design and Harsher in Hindsight.
  • A human rights organization, in response to anti-LGBTQ legislation in Mississippi in 2016, rented an electronic billboard featuring Jesus doing a facepalm.
  • CNN New Day anchor Alisyn Camerota reacted this way to a Trump supporter who insisted that there were 3 million illegal voters and that Obama encouraged them to do, even those the video in question was falsified by Fox Business News. When the Trump supporters continued, to argue that this was true, Alisyn reacts with this Trope.
  • British actor Jamie Bamber, upon being told by a fan that she had watched his movie Ghost Rig, doubled over and buried his face in the crook of his elbow, muttering, "Oh God. Not that one." (It's an Old Shame for him)
  • John Kelly's reaction to Trump calling Kim Jong Un "Rocket Man" in the UN.
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leading health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, did a facepalm during one of the briefings on the pandemic when President Trump made a deep state joke at the podium.
  • The facepalm has been added to the standard Unicode emoji list, so even if your friends and coworkers can't see you doing the move you can still deliver one across cyberspace.
  • The joke conlang kay(f)dan(f)san(t)ap(t)vlir(t)sang(b)es(p)u(t)vom(b)ngag(t)vlim(p)kay(f)sna(f)kay(f)ga(f) bop(t)veg(p)daf(f)shof(b)*om(p)vlim(p)ga(f)vlim(p)ga, more laconically known as kay(f)bop(t), includes the facepalm (represented with @) as part of its phonology. Conlang Critic's review of it coined the pseudo-linguistic term "faciomanual click" to refer to the facepalm sound.
  • UK Labour leader Keir Starmer did this during Prime Minister's questions as Boris Johnson tried to defend himself over the "Partygate" scandal, after an email emerged confirming there was an evening gathering at Downing Street in 2020, when the country was supposed to be in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alternative Title(s): Comic Strips

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Naked Gun - Facepalm

This happens when Frank attempts to get the gun from Rocko while holding onto the bomb in the envelope only for them to switch places causing everyone including the audience to facepalm.

How well does it match the trope?

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Main / Facepalm

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